Indicator of Solidarity and Nucleation
The Federal University of Pará (UFPA) plays a leading role in scientific and technological development in the Amazon, representing a significant part of the qualified human resources, specialized infrastructure and scientific competence in the region. It has, therefore, a fundamental role to play in the materialization of a development model founded on the scientific domain of the material and cultural wealth of the region.
The acknowledgment that UFPA's actions are fundamental for ST&I to spread in the Amazon region and, thus, reduce regional inequalities, imposes on the institution the challenge of quantitatively and qualitatively expanding its actions in research and in postgraduate studies. Institutional efforts in the last decade have resulted in an increase in the installed capacity to train human resources, quadrupling its number of postgraduate programs, currently with 56 Postgraduate Programs, of which 26 are PhD, covering all major areas of knowledge .
The institution has about 1,400 doctors and 800 masters, of the latter, about 400 professors in training in doctoral programs. The current challenges are focused on the consolidation of its PhD Programs and on improving the conditions of the Masters programs, in order to allow the creation of new PhD courses at UFPA. It can be said that the institution has already achieved excellence in certain areas in postgraduate studies, such as Geosciences and Biological Sciences. On the other hand, the post-graduations in Engineering still need to advance in their qualification.
UFPA considers it fundamental to bring together its researchers and research groups for a multidisciplinary study of problems of strategic relevance to the region, particularly in the areas of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Human Health, Energy, Biotechnology and Natural Resource Utilization.
For this, UFPA needs, among other actions, to equate current limitations and anticipate the fulfillment of anticipated demands for the near future. This will only be possible with the expansion of partnerships between UFPA and the state entity, mainly through the official agencies for research and graduate training.
Strategic programs for the development of ST&I, such as the Science Without Borders Program, are seen as an excellent window of opportunity to enable UFPA to involve its students and teachers in scientific exchanges, in addition to increasing the attraction and attraction of human resources. The attraction of renowned researchers will contribute strongly to the strengthening of several research groups with trajectories recognized by the regional and national scientific community and that work in different UFPA graduate programs.
The Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering (PPGEE), Federal University of Pará, was the first graduate program in Electrical Engineering of the nine states in the Legal Amazon. The program started with a master's degree in 1986 and a doctorate in 1998, and was awarded CAPES accreditation in 1999. The program is organized in three areas of concentration: Electrical Energy Systems, Telecommunications and Applied Computing.
The regular academic activities of the master's and doctoral courses are developed mainly by professors of the College of Electrical Engineering (FEE) and the Faculty of Computer Engineering and Telecommunications (FCT) of UFPA. Some aspects of PPGEE are listed below:
- Admission and Selection Process:
Over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the demand for PPGEE admission, both at the Master's and Doctorate levels. In order to provide greater transparency and efficiency to the PPGEE Selection Process, since 2008, the Public Selection Notice has been published, which, among others, specifies the criteria for evaluation, deadlines and vacancies by concentration area.
There are two selection processes for PPGEE, one in each semester. The Official Notice, prepared by the Coordination and approved in a Collegiate meeting, conducts the exam. For selection, the following requirements are taken into account: Curriculum and Candidate History, Recommendation Letters and Work Plan.
All information about the selection is served from the PPGEE website and, locally, at the Program’s Administration Office.
- Program Administration:
The PPGEE is administered by a Collegiate and conducted by a Coordinator and a Vice Coordinator, with the support of the Administrative Staff. The Collegiate is the maximum instance of the Program and responsible for the orientation and the didactic and administrative supervision, being responsible for deciding on any matters related to the PPGEE activities. The Collegiate is composed, in addition to the Coordinator and Vice Coordinator, by all the professors of the Program, as well as by student and technical-administrative representation.
- Criteria for Accreditation / Permanence of Professors in PPGEE:
The PPGEE has specific resolution that deals with the subject Accreditation / Permanence of Professors in the Program. Resolution 001/2011 - PPGEE establishes that:
- To remain in the tenured teaching staff of the PPGEE, the professor must obtain, at the end of the triennium, at least the following production:
Obtain DPI greater than or equal to 1.5, with at least one A1 or A2 article.
- For new accreditations in the PPGEE Tenured Professors, the professor must have, in the last three years, at least the following production:
DPI greater than or equal to 2.0, with at least one A1 or A2 article.
In both cases, it is considered a reducer of collaborative production, according to criteria adopted by the CAPES Area Committee.
Program Evolution - Main Results and Challenges for Consolidation
After 27 years of beginning stricto-sensu graduation activities, the PPGEE has shown clear indicators of improvement, but there are still great challenges for its consolidation as a human resources training program for the Amazon. Among the significant goals achieved it can be highlighted:
- Training of 400 masters and 100 doctors until 12/31/2013. Among these, a critical mass of processors who work in the region and who carry out teaching, research and orientation activities of students, in cooperation with other institutions, with positive impacts on the qualification of these HEIs, for example, allowing them to attend to the requirements for the authorization / recognition of MEC undergraduate courses. Among the institutions that have professors graduated by PPGEE, the following can be mentioned: UFRA, Federal Rural University of Amazonia, University Center of the State of Pará - CESUPA, Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology Federal University of Pará IFPA – Federal University of the West of Pará - UFOPA, Federal University of Southern and Southeastern Pará - UNIFESSPA, Federal University of Pará - Campus of: Castanhal, Tucuruí, Altamira, Abaetetuba; University of the Amazon - UNAMA, among others.
- Consolidation of lines of research in the various areas of activity of the Program, with the creation of new laboratories, study groups and integration centers that make up the instrumental basis for training human resources, already considered.
- Relevant scientific production and outstanding participation in scientific journals, national and international conferences and 20 patents / requests for protection in projects in partnership with companies.
- Increased approval in numbers of research and development projects, in particular financed by sectoral energy, computer and telecommunications funds, and by development agencies. This has made it possible to sign several agreements with companies for the development of technical cooperation works that have still been very effective, as stimulators of the scientific and technological production of PPGEE, generating several dissertations and publications. Examples of such partnerships are the Northern Brazil Power Plants - ELETRONORTE; Aluminum Brazilian S.A. - ALBRAS, Pará Power Plants - CELPA, ERICSSON, VALE, BRASILSAT, PETROBRAS, Brazilian Energy Transmitters - TBE, among others.
- Participation in institutional projects approved by UFPA last FINEP / PROINFRA notices.
- Extension of physical area, modernization of computational infrastructure, acquisition of equipment and software for implementation of the laboratories of research in Applied Electromagnetism (LEA), High Performance Network Planning (LPRAD), Signal Processing (LaPS), Technological Innovation (LabIT), Control and Systems Laboratory (LACOS); Industrial Electronics Laboratory (LEI); Study Group on Energy Alternatives (GEDAE).
- Increase of the bibliographic collection of its sector library, with acquisition of updated references and expansion of the service space. As of 2013, every ITEC graduate will use a single sector library.
- Restructuring in 3 areas of concentration: Electrical Energy Systems, Telecommunications and Applied Computing, with a better integration among the groups of research professors.
- Recruitment of professors and increasing the number of researchers in research productivity and technological productivity, PPGEE currently has 8 scholars of research productivity and 4 scholars of productivity, technological development and innovative extension.
- Insertion of researchers of the Program in the creation of national and international agreements: PROCAD-Academic, PROCAD-TVDigital, PROCAD-NF, CAPES-COFFECUB, DAAD, CAPE-FIPSE, CAPES-ICCT, CAPES- FCT, CAPES- Pro-Amazon.
- Outstanding participation of its professors in the leadership of national and regional projects and strategic actions of UFPA for integration with industry and regional technological development, such as:
i) Participation in the implementation of the Federal University of Southern and Southeastern Pará (UNIFESSPA), where Professor João Crisóstomo Weyl Albuquerque Costa holds the position of Vice-Rector and Professor Carlos Renato Lisboa Francés holds the position of Pro-Rector of Post-Graduation, Research and Technological Innovation;
ii) Participation of Professor João Tavares Pinho as Director of S&T for Social Development, at the State Department of Science, Technology and Technical and Technological Education (SECTET), of the Government of the State of Pará.
iii) Creation of UNIVERSITEC, of the Innovation Agency of UFPA, 1st president professor Ubiratan Holanda Bezerra.
iv) Structuring of the Science, Technology and Innovation sector of the State of Pará for the years 2007-2010: creation of the Secretariat of Science and Technology (Assistant Secretary, Prof. João Weyl Costa, director of S & T, Roberto Limão), Foundation of Research Support of the State of Pará (1st President, Prof. Ubirantan Holanda);
v) Implementation of the NavegaPará Project, the largest public data communication network in the Amazon and the Brazilian experience as defined for the PNBL in the use of optical fiber network over OPGW cables for public network deployment with high availability and reliability for organ connection public and digital inclusion (President Data Processing Company, Prof Carlos Renato Francés and Prof João Weyl Costa).
vi) Implementation of the Science and Technology Park Guamá partnership with UFPA and the Government of Pará, with funding of FINEP, BNDES, ELETROBRAS and Government of the State of Pará (João Weyl, Ubiratan Holanda, Roberto Limão and Renato Francés)
- Insertion of PPGEE researchers and laboratories into national strategic programs, such as research consortia in high-speed networks (Metropolitan Networks-Redecomep, GIga-Internet Project 2), Digital TV, Nanotechnology Program, Energy Quality, Solar Energy and Wind Energy, INCT Wireless Communications (vice-leader prof. Gervásio Cavalcante), INCT Energy Alternatives (leader Prof João Pinho); among others.
- Organization of congresses of scientific societies for the first time in the Amazon Region, among the main ones:
2004- SBrT - Brazilian Symposium on Telecommunications;
2005 - SBQE - Brazilian Symposium on Energy Quality;
2007 - SBRC_- Brazilian Society of Computer Networks;
2008 - SBC - Brazilian Society of Computing;
2009 - International Workshop on PMU and Applications
2009 - IMOC - International Microwave and Optoelectronics Conference;
2010 - Brazilian Symposium on Electrical Systems
2011 - IEEE / LATINCOM - Latin American Conference on Communications.
- Outstanding participation in scientific entities: Brazilian Microwave and Optoelectronic Society - SBMO: João Pinho, vice president 2002-2004 and president 2004-2006; João Crisóstomo Weyl, vice president 2010-2012 and president (2012-2014). Brazilian Solar Energy Association, João Tavares Pinho, president 2009-2011. International Solar Energy Society - Brazil Section, João Tavares Pinho, president 2009-2011.
- Implementation in partnership with ELETROBRAS of the Center of Excellence in Energy Efficiency of the Amazon - CEAMAZOM.
- Implementation with FINEP funding of the High Voltage Laboratory, within the framework of the Science and Technology Park of Guamá, in partnership with the Government of Pará, Eletrobras / Eletronorte and PPGEE / UFPA.
- Implementation of GEDAE, Study and Development of Energy Alternatives Group, with the main purposes of research and development of low cost technologies to meet small and medium energy demands, the survey of energy demands and potentials, interaction with other groups who work in the areas of interest, the dissemination of knowledge through undergraduate and graduate courses of UFPA and the provision of services in the form of consultancy and courses to the community in general.
- Strong interaction with undergraduate courses. This has always been a major concern of the Electrical Engineering Graduate Program, and will continue to be because, historically, most of the students come from the Undergraduate Course in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. This justifies the concern that the graduate faculty has in aggregating undergraduate students in their research projects, promoting scientific initiation, advising Final Papers and teaching lessons and giving lectures.