Research Centers and Institutes

On the frontier of knowledge

In addition to being organized by areas, our faculty carry out interdisciplinary research, participating in large competitive grants awarded to centers for excellence in research:

Center for Applied Economics (CEA)

Created in 1992, the Center for Applied Economics (CEA) applies economic theory to specific problems. Being part of Industrial Engineering allows you to integrate concepts and solutions from engineering, business and economics schools, allowing a global approach to the problems you study. The CEA has a long tradition of research, focusing on areas such as microeconomic theory, industrial organization, education, labor economics, macroeconomics, political economy, and finance. His work in several of these areas has been pioneering in Chile and has been published in the best international academic journals.

For the academics who are part of this center, teaching is central. Hence, they actively participate in the Master’s in Applied Economics (MagCEA) and in the Doctorate in Engineering Systems, a program that has a line of specialization in economics. At the undergraduate level, CEA researchers teach economics courses for the Industrial Engineering career.

On the public front, meanwhile, CEA academics maintain an active participation with opinion articles and appearances in the press, and their experience is frequently required in the design of public policies, which explains their presence in various Commissions and Technical Panels.
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Research Centers focused on the key challenges of the public and private sectors:

Through the development of projects for private and public companies, Industrial Engineering has strengthened its integrative approach, always focused on the development of the country. This translates into tools that have made it possible to improve management practices, through technology transfer to the different sectors of the national economy. The Interdisciplinary Research Centers seek to improve operations in associated industries, conducting applied research. They are:

Retail Studies Center (CERET)

Created in 2008, its objective is to generate and develop productivity solutions for companies in the retail sector. With its work, it seeks to channel and promote the growth of this industry by developing and disseminating new methods and tools that support business management, becoming a national and Latin American benchmark in disseminating best practices in this sector. To this end, it conducts research and teaching on topics of interest to the industry with a special emphasis on operations management and analytical marketing. Its director is Marcel Goic.
www.ceret.cl .

Operations Research Center for the Mining Industry (CIOMIN)

Joint initiative of the Departments of Industrial Engineering and Mining Engineering, CIOMIN was born in 2009, thanks to an agreement with Codelco, its mission is to generate new knowledge for the industry and train talent for this sector. In particular, it seeks to develop new technologies in the operations area, consolidate work teams of Codelco academics, researchers, thesis students and professionals, and form an international collaboration network. It is co-directed by Rafael Epstein, from the Department of Industrial Engineering, and Juan Luis Yarmuch, from the Department of Mining Engineering.

Center for Public Systems (CSP)

Created in May 2010, the CSP’s mission is to integrate approaches to the design, implementation, and management of public policies relevant to the reform and modernization of the State in Chile and Latin America. To this end, it integrates engineering and management tools to develop research, teaching, extension, and consulting on topics such as strategic management, people management, public finance, electronic government, and public project management. The CSP works with public institutions at the national, regional and local levels. Its Academic Director is Pablo González.
www.sistemaspublicos.cl

Organizational Engineering Center (CIO)

Created in July 2014, the most recent center of Industrial Engineering seeks to contribute to solving the challenges of organizations, people management and leadership through engineering concepts, methods and tools. It carries out research, teaching and transfers knowledge through its interaction with companies and public and private organizations. Its vision is to identify, generate and disseminate the best organizational, people management and leadership practices, becoming an ally for the development of the country and the Latin American region. It is led by Sebastián Conde.
www.ingenieriaorganizacional.cl