Every June 16 is celebrated as the Engineer's Day in Argentina. It is in commemoration of the beginning of engineering education in the country. In 1855 Carlos Enrique Pellegrini -president between 1890 and 1892- proposed to the rector of the University of Buenos Aires to create and engineering degree. Ten years later, and through a decree that was signed on June 16, began to teach this discipline, within the Department of Exact Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. The curriculum included 18 subjects that focused on the teaching of mathematics, technical drawing, mineralogy, geology and construction.
Who was the first person to graduate as engineer in Argentina?
The first graduated civil engineer in Argentina was Luis Augusto Huergo, who graduated on June 6, 1870. For that reason, on that date is commemorated the Day of Engineering.
Huergo carried out the channeling of the Tercero, Cuarto and Quinto rivers to increase the flow of the Salado as well as the construction of the port of San Fernando with a caisson dam that was the first to be made in the country.
He also designed a navigation channel from Cordoba to the Paraná river, carried out the port works of Asunción in Paraguay, doubled the capacity of the San Roque Dam, and implemented modernization works in Córdoba.
In 1876, he was appointed director of the works of the Riachuelo and built a port for deep draft ships.
Who was the first women engineer in Argentina?
The first Argentine woman who graduated in engineering was Elisa Beatriz Bachofen. But not only was it a pioneer in the country, but also throughout South America.
Born in the City of Buenos Aires, she obtained her diploma as a civil engineer in 1917. She graduated with a thesis that provided a productive vision in the installation of a factory of yarns and fabrics made from Chaco cotton.
She was technical director of the Documentary Research Center of the National Institute of Industrial Technology, chaired and integrated the advisory committee of the National Commission of Universal Decimal Classification of the Center for Scientific Documentation.
In addition to this, to providing consultancy to several private companies, she was president of the Technical Commission of the Circle of Inventors, presented several patents and published the Inventor's Guide, which was reissued on numerous occasions.
To his intense professional activity he added an outstanding social participation. He was a feminist militant; directed, together with Lola S. De Bourguet and Adelia Di Carlo, the magazine of the Union, Nuestra Causa and worked as editor of the newspaper El Pueblo.
He also chaired the Argentine Association of Scientific and Technical Libraries and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Association of Women of Business and Professionals. He died on November 19, 1976.
