Bucaramanga

From an urban and regional development perspective, Bucaramanga—officially the capital of the Santander Department in Colombia—stands as the ninth most populous city in the country, with an estimated population of 613,400 inhabitants as of 2023, and ranks fifth nationally in terms of GDP contribution, reflecting its strategic position as a key economic hub in the Andean region. The city exhibits notably favorable socioeconomic indicators, including one of the lowest unemployment rates in Colombia, which underscores its dynamic labor market and growing industrial and service sectors.

Bucaramanga is also distinguished by its extensive urban green infrastructure, comprising over 160 public parks, a feature that has earned it the epithets «La Ciudad de los Parques» (The City of Parks) and «La Ciudad Bonita de Colombia» (Colombia’s Beautiful City). Since the 1960s, the city has experienced sustained metropolitan expansion, integrating the adjacent municipalities of Floridablanca, Girón, and Piedecuesta into a functionally cohesive conurbation. This Bucaramanga Metropolitan Area now hosts a combined population of approximately 1.3 million residents, positioning it as the sixth-largest metropolitan region in Colombia, surpassed only by Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, and Cartagena. The metropolitan consolidation has been driven by infrastructure development, commercial interconnectivity, and the concentration of higher-education institutions and technology-oriented enterprises, making the area an increasingly relevant node for innovation, engineering research, and academic–industrial collaboration in the Colombian context.

Universidad Industrial de Santander

The conference will be held in auditoriums and rooms at the Universidad Industrial de Santander. Please, review the program and any doubt ask to the organizers.