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TUM-alumni Dipl.-Ing. Guillermo Knaudt enjoying
the TUM’s key fob around his neck.
Foto: Guillermo Knaudt
Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Ponciano J. Torrado, Spokesman
of the Latin-American TUM-Alumni Net
Foto: Hanna Lauterbach
Dipl.-Ing. Felipe Kaiser MSc, Prof. Dr. Beatriz
Cancino, Dr. Peter Rölz in Valparaíso
Foto: privat
Transfer from Valparaíso to Santiago de Chile
Foto: Peter Rölz
The remarkably strong interest and enthusiasm
shown by the participants in following
the activities of the Latin-American
TUM-Alumni Net continued until the end of
the colloquium. I was unanimously re-elected
as spokesman of this Alumni-Net – a
great honour for me. We resolved to hold
the 2004 meeting in Petropolis, near Río de
Janeiro in Brazil, considering its HiTec Park
to be one of the most suitable places to initiate
a programm of technology transfer, because
a great number of German companies
have settled in that area.
TUM-Alumni International
A passion for bridge-building
Within the last 27 years Professor
Ponciano Torrado developed strong
professional and personal ties to the
TUM’s Faculty of Civil Engineering.
In 1977 I was appointed as Professor of
Reinforced Concrete to the Engineering Faculty
of the Universidad de la República de
Uruguay. Although Uruguay had always followed
the German technique in this field,
the necessary changes promoted by the
German codes DIN 1045 and 4227 of
1972, had not taken place at that time. I
enthusiastically accepted the challenge of
modernizing the teaching of Concrete in
Uruguay, and applied for a place at the
Technische Universität München, funded by
a DAAD scholarship.
As I already had a good knowledge of the
German language, having studied at the
Goethe Institute in Montevideo for six years,
and having developed an increasing interest
in reading German technical books in
the original language, I was in the optimum
position to be awarded this scholarship.
The choice of the Technische Universität
München was an obvious one for me, because
of my previous knowledge of the
works published by Professors Rüsch, Kupfer
and Grasser. My application was accepted
by the Technische Universität München
and I was honoured with the academic
tutorship of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Emil Grasser.
Since then we have maintained a lasting
friendship.
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Ponciano J. Torrado
In 1979 I was accepted by the Chair of
Construction (Lehrstuhl für Massivbau, afterwards
called Institut für Bauingenieurwesen
III) as a guest for the whole year. There
I was able to study Reinforced and Prestressed
Concrete directly at the source of
research, and also to hold interesting discussions
with the members of the institute
about current projects. Furthermore, I was
accepted as a guest at the very important
construction company Dyckerhoff & Widmann
AG, where I could be informed on a
weekly basis about the bridge projects of
the department directed by Dr.-Ing. E. h.
Herbert Schambeck. I was also able to visit
several construction sites.
On my return to Uruguay in 1980 I introduced
far-reaching changes in the teaching of
Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete, adopting
the same study level as in the TU München
and choosing the same bibliography as
used in Germany. In 1985 I was invited again to
the chair of Prof. Kupfer, for an update visit of
one month. Following a proposal by Dr.-Ing. h.c.
Hanno Goffin, president of the German Committee
of Reinforced Concrete (Deutscher Ausschuss
für Stahlbeton), I was accepted as a correspondent
member. Even today, although time is short,
I have frequent contacts and maintain friendships
with many professors and engineers in Munich.
My studies in Germany did not only make a profound
impression on my professional training;
they were also a rich cultural experience, which,
with the agreement of my wife, I later passed on
to our four children, who attended primary and
secondary school at the German School in Montevideo.
They have even visited Germany by
means of an exchange programm. In addition,
my eldest daughter, Valentina, has twice been
awarded a scholarship, by a foundation in the
Land of Saxony for the patronage of young artists.
The recent creation of the TUM-Alumni Net, with
the support of the DAAD, was a brilliant idea
which will keep alive and intensified the contacts
with a university that has so generously placed
the latest knowledge within our reach. The International
TUM-Alumni Net opens a future full of
expectation. It is our task to use our imagination
to create an interesting flow of technical and
technological exchange for the benefit of the relationship
between Germany and Latin America.
Ponciano J. Torrado