Study hydrology at UTFSM
The Hydrology Group in the Department of Civil Engineering at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Valparaíso, Chile) is looking for master's and undergraduate students who want to work on real problems in water resources, climate change and extreme events. Each thesis is carried out within one of the group's research lines, with a faculty advisor, and with our publications and software as part of the work.
Research lines
- Climate change: climate impacts on water resources.
- Numerical modeling: hydrodynamic and process models, including SWEpy, the group's GPU solver.
- Monitoring and hydrological forecasting.
- Extreme events analysis: floods, droughts and extreme precipitation.
- Surface hydrology.
- Hydrogeology.
Who you would work with
Three assistant professors lead the group:
- Joaquín Meza (PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis).
- Miguel Lagos (PhD in Civil Engineering, Universidad de Chile).
- Álvaro Ossandón (PhD in Civil Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder).
Meet the rest of the group, current students and alumni on the team page.
Open thesis topics
We publish the available thesis topics with their level (undergraduate or master's), advisor and requirements. Current proposals include physical modeling of tsunamis and meteotsunamis, flood and probable maximum precipitation estimation in Andean basins, river discharge measurement with drones, LiDAR and imagery, and GPU-accelerated snow models. See master's topics or all topics (pages in Spanish).
Don't see a topic that fits your interests? Write to us through the contact page and we can discuss a proposal of your own.
Funding
Students from the group have won the ANID National Master's Scholarship (Beca de Magíster Nacional ANID); three members received it in 2026 (news, in Spanish).
How to apply
- Pick a topic or research line among the thesis topics.
- Write to the advisor of the topic (their email is on each topic page) describing your background and why you are interested.
Coming soon: formal requirements, deadlines and the application link to the program will be posted here. In the meantime, write to us through the contact page and we will guide you.
A group with results
The group publishes in indexed journals and develops open-source software. Browse our publications to see the kind of work you would join.