From November 29th – December 1st, the university held the 4th International Congress on Science, Technology and Innovation for Society (CITIS for its acronym in Spanish). The congress was attended by national and international researchers in order to disseminate information about technologies that directly impact the quality of life of people, especially vulnerable groups, economically and socially speaking.

The opening ceremony was presided by UPS president Javier Herran and also attended by Andres Bayolo, vice president UPS' branch campus in Guayaquil; Jose Juncosa vice president of UPS's branch campus in Quito; Patricia Albaraccin from SENESCYT; Carlos Lozano, director of IEEE Latin America; Humberto Michinel, general secretary of Comisión Internacional de Óptica and Cristina Jenaro, professor at Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)

Father Herran spoke about the importance of CITIS to disseminate projects that help sustainable development in society. "CITIS is an opportunity to realize that crisis occurs due to the application of non-sustainable development systems. 

There were 4 workshops led by Cristina Jenaro and Noelia Flores from Universidad de Salamanca, Jose Aller from UPS, Carmen Moret from Universidad Catolica de Valencia and Moises Moreno, consultant from Scopus Elsevier.

Researchers from Venezuela, Germany, Spain, Mexico and Ecuador attended the congress to talk about: Industries, the environment, health and infocom. They took part in keynote speeches, presentations, poster exhibitions and prototypes created by students from the robotics club in Guayaquil.

Besides the scientific activities, there were also some cultural activities with the university band and the folk dance group.

The closing ceremony was presided by Pablo Perez, coordinator of CITIS 2017. "UPS is open to generating new knowledge and research projects that strengthen academia in the university", he said. 

The winners were: