DePaul University - IS 596 : IT in Emerging Countries

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - http://www.cos.ufrj.br/

	Organizations Visited

	ATECH

	CDI

	Companhia Vale do Rio Doce

	EDS

	LNCC

	NeKi Technologies

	Petrobras

	Transax International Limited

	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

	Xerox Brazil

Rio de Janerio: Brazil

Description

One of the first universities in Brazil to offer a Masters and Doctoral program in Computer Science starting in the late 60s and early 70s respectively. The Systems Engineering and Computer Science Program (PESC) is one of the graduate programs of the Graduate School and Research in Engineering Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute (COPPE) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). They were one of the first universities in Brazil to offer a Masters and Doctoral program in Computer Science starting in the late 60s and early 70s respectively. Since then the school has awarded more than 800 Masters and 200 PhDs. There is also a Computer Science program for undergraduates, but it is located in the Math department.

Currently, 38 professors in 9 research areas teach about 250 graduate students and 100 doctoral students. The school places a strong emphasis on the technical aspect of computing with disciplines that include Graphic Theory, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Networks, Optimization and more. Only one area, Informatics and Society, examines the more social and intangible aspects of technology. At one time the school did teach Information Management, however, students interested in this topic now enter the Business School to attain a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). This trend is slightly different than the United States where we are seeing a move towards studying Information Systems to bridge the gap between business and technology.

As a part of the government-run Federal University, the PESC program is free to all students who are accepted. Unfortunately, this does mean that competition is fierce with an acceptance rate of about 20% or approximately 200 new students per year. If one enters the graduate program, he or she is unlikely to dropout. The undergraduate program, though, has a dropout rate of about 50%. After just one or two years of study, many students have enough experience to get good, high-paying jobs (by Brazilian standards) in the technology industry and leave the program to earn money.

Being a public university has its challenges. There are not enough IT instructors at all levels because salaries are low in schools. Generally, a lack of resources for IT can hinder the research being conducted as well. For students, there is no placement office either so they often do not have access to the best jobs. Positively, however, the students are given a lot of responsibility and gain much experience. The university works closely with many industries in Brazil, especially government companies like Petrobras (oil), EMBRATEL (telecommunications), Rio Sul Aviacao, and Marinha do Brazil.

Visit Summary

The head of the department, Professor Edmundo de Sonza e Silva, provided the class with an overview of the school and then a tour of the labs. The professor and his students spoke in English yet it was interesting to learn that the graduate studies (even for computers) are conducted in Portuguese. Everyone speaks English because they often collaborate with universities around the world so the students must be fully bilingual to participate.

The labs themselves were not much different than what we see in the U.S., but the usage was quite different. A series of small labs containing a total of around 200 computers were available for student use but most were dedicated to a particular professor and his or her research project. Interestingly, these labs were run more as scientific labs than general learning centers for the students. Unlike graduate students at DePaul CTI, most students are full-time as a Chemistry or Biology graduate student would be in the U.S. In addition, these students were involved in high-level projects, such as a government satellite communications improvement as opposed to a group project created just for the course.

Prof. Silva introduced his own research project as well, a Distance Learning (DL) program for the Federal University to create more cost effective higher education. Currently, Rio de Janeiro has only 5 universities for 8 million people. To meet demand Prof. Silva is preparing 20 DL centers with the necessary technology. He and his students have worked to create web-based tutorials, streaming video, improved audio and increased storage space. Some subjects would be web-enabled while other, more introductory courses will be stored for later use at a center, therefore lectures are both live and taped. Each DL center will also have trained teaching assistants or tutors to help students.

Related Links

http://www.cos.ufrj.br/

	Related Links

Pictures

http://www.cos.ufrj.br/

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