Report of the Formation of the Uruguayan National Group of IABSE

On 26 August 2024, the Uruguayan National Group (NG) of IABSE was officially established, following the initiative of Dr. Matías Valenzuela, Vice President of IABSE, PUCV. The founding meeting was held in Montevideo as well as online. There were a total of 18 attendees, including 10 members of IABSE Uruguay and 8 interested in being part of the Uruguayan NG. This instance was hand in hand with the webinar entitled "The new StorstrØm Bridge" dictated by Fernando Sima [IABSE member], which served as a pre-meeting activity and where other engineers from Uruguay were invited to join IABSE.

In the beginning, Matias Valenzuela, who has participated as a facilitator of the Uruguayan NG, gave an introduction and contextualized the creation of the NG. He also told about the history, objectives and purposes of IABSE as well as the work and events that are carried out. Then, during the inaugural meeting, the National Group’s By-laws were presented and unanimously approved. The founding Executive Committee of the Uruguayan NG was also elected during this session.

Finally, the group outlined the objectives for future work and set the next meeting for October 2024. During this upcoming meeting, the focus will be on discussing these goals and to providing an opportunity for participants to familiarize with the current working groups of IABSE.

The next step is for the elected Executive Committee to prepare a workplan for the next two years, with a focus on strengthening and increasing the presence of IABSE in Uruguay and in the region. In the same way as other newly formed National Groups in the Latin America, the plan is to fully support the activities organized together with the other National Groups of IABSE in the region.