Federal University of ABC

Federal University of ABC (Portuguese: Universidade Federal do ABC, UFABC) is a Brazilian federal public institution of higher learning based in Santo André and São Bernardo do Campo, municipalities belonging to the ABC region, both in the state of São Paulo.

UFABC is the only federal university in Brazil with 100% of its professors holding PhDs and, for the second consecutive year in 2011, emerged as the only university in Brazil with impact factor in scientific publications above the world average according to SCImago Institutions Rankings. The institution was evaluated by the General Course Index (IGC) of the Ministry of Education (MEC) as the best university in the State of São Paulo, being rated as the 1st in the ranking of undergraduate courses among all universities in Brazil. The IGC takes into account in its assessment factors such as infrastructure, faculty and graduates' scores in the National Student Performance Exam (ENADE). It occupies the 1st place among Brazilian universities in the "Internationalization" item in the University Ranking of the Folha de São Paulo newspaper.

The chairman of the committee that formulated the proposal of the university was Luiz Bevilacqua, who became its second rector.

History and expansion

In 2004, the Ministry of Education sent Bill 3.962 / 2004 to the National Congress, which provided for the creation of the Federal University of ABC Foundation. This law was sanctioned by the President of the Republic Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and published in the Federal Official Gazette (D.O.U.) of 27 July 2005, under No. 11,145 and dated 26 July 2005.

UFABC aims to integrate several campuses in the Greater ABC region. The current campuses are based in the municipalities of Santo André (headquarters) and São Bernardo do Campo.

Deans

The first rector of UFABC was the ex-rector of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), professor Hermano Tavares (PhD in Automation at the Université de Toulouse), whose term lasted from 2005 to 2007.

Tavares was succeeded by the former president of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), professor Luiz Bevilacqua (PhD in Applied Mechanics at Stanford University and Grand Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit), who had been his vice-chancellor and presided over the university implantation committee.

For health reasons, Bevilacqua left office in mid-2008, being succeeded, pro tempore, by the former president of the Brazilian Society of Physics, Professor Adalberto Fazzio (PhD in Renewable Energies by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit).

In January 2010, President Lula appointed the former Dean of Research at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and Full Professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), Professor Helio Waldman (PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and Commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit) to exercise the position of rector of UFABC for the next four years. Professor Waldman had obtained the unanimous preference of the Electoral College in the composition of the triple list and won the Consultation to the Community, obtaining the majority of votes in all categories of voters (students, teachers and administrative technicians).

Recognition

The French newspaper Le Monde published an article that highlights the fact that it is the first Brazilian university to rely on 100% of professors with doctorates.

Writing in the Mexican Gnoseogénesis, the doctor José Luis Morán López of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México highlights the pleasant surprise of the creation of UFABC and its interdisciplinary project created by 25 Brazilian scientists.

The portal of the Methodist University of São Paulo published an article on the inauguration of one of the blocks UFABC made by the then-president of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva where it talks about the goal of leaving the UFABC among the 100 best universities in the world, for example, ahead of the Brazilian university USP that was in 138th position among the best universities in the world.

Undergraduate teaching

Unlike many universities in Brazil, where the curriculum has a fixed order, at UFABC, the student can decide the order in which the subjects will be taken, without prerequisites, only recommendations. That means that anyone can take any subject, given that the class isn't full. Also the year is divided in three four-months periods, instead of two semesters.

At the end of each period, the student chooses the classes they want to take. On each class, the students are listed by their CR (which is UFABC's version of the GPA) and the first ones will attend that class on the next period. However, if the class is from a specific course, the criteria becomes the CP (a number ranging from 0 to 1 that indicates how much of that specific course was completed by that student). All disciplines have an associated "credit", which represents the number of classes per two weeks.

After their basic university education, the student has several options: they can enter the job market with a bachelor's degree in Science and Technology or may continue at the university and attend one or two years in a bachelor's program specifically or eight forms of engineering. There is also the possibility of holding a master's degree and moving to master's degree programs in other national and international programs.

The graduate of an interdisciplinary bachelor's program of a university may enroll in up to two of 21 options for undergraduate courses as their basic training, divided into bachelor's degrees and.

The UFABC was the first institution of higher education in Brazil to adopt the interdisciplinary bachelor's degree.

Disciplines

There are three types of disciplines at UFABC, mandatory, limited option and free. The type of any given discipline is different for each course, meaning that the same discipline might be of one type on a course, but of other type on another. Mandatory disciplines are the ones required by a course in order to finish it. For computer science students, Databases discipline required, so for the computer science course, it is mandatory. Limited option disciplines are meant to enhance the student's knowledge on a certain field of study. Molecular evolution, for example, is a limited option discipline for Biology students. Free disciplines are all disciplines that don't fit in either one of the previous categories. LIBRAS is a free discipline on all non-licentiate courses.

Evaluation

The fact that the curriculum has no fixed order introduces some disadvantages, for example, one professor may apply harder exams than the others, creating a disparity between grades on the same discipline. Some, however, are "unified", meaning that the same exams and evaluations will be applied to all students, preventing that disparity. Excluding Quantum Physics and Structure of Matter, all Physics related disciplines are unified.

Research

The UFABC is the only federal university in the Brazil that has 100% of professors with a doctoral degree. UFABC research in Nanotechnology has been recognised by CNPq. Researchers in Nanotechnology in UFABC were able to publish articles in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

The university employs professors who received the Capes awards for Best Thesis, researchers with the Commendation and the Grand Cross of the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and representatives of national scientific organizations.

In March 2007 the CAPES approved 10 of 11 applications for the opening of post-graduate studies (Master and Doctorate). The CAPES on average approves only one third of the applications referred to it.

UFABC participates in major research projects worldwide, among them the presence of the university in the largest scientific project of all time, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) that is operating the largest particle accelerator ever built and also in the DZero Experiment of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) of the United States Department of Energy that conducts research on the basic structure of matter in the second-largest particle accelerator in the world. The university has a presence in the first Brazilian space mission to deep space, the Mission Aster (Missão Aster), of the Brazilian Space Agency, which provides for the launching of a space probe in 2015.

UFABC has research completed or in progress with research institutions such as the COPPE-UFRJ, the National Institute for Space Research, the Brazilian Space Agency, the Angra Nuclear Power Plant, the National Education and Research Network (RNP), UNICAMP, Unifesp, USP, UFSCar, the Brazilian National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Brazilian General Command for Aerospace Technology (CTA-IEAv), the Eletronuclear, the Institute for Research on Stem Cells (IPCTRON), the Brazilian National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), the Brazilian Navy Technology Center (CTMSP), the National Institute of Science and Technology for Optical Communications (FOTONICOM), the ICMC-USP, the Brazilian Society of Biophysics, UFRGS, UNIFEI and UNIFENAS.

The university collaborates with research institutes as the Max Planck Institute (Germany), the Paris-Sud 11 University (France), the National Acoustic Laboratories (Australia) and the Pierre Auger Observatory (Argentina), the National Institute for Materials Science (Japan), the University of Texas System (USA), the Universidade do Algarve (Portugal) and the Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal).

Postgraduate education

The UFABC has courses of postgraduate education (Master or PhD) approved by the Capes. They are:

• Biological systems engineering (Master and PhD)
• Biotechnology (Master and PhD)
• Computer science (Master and PhD)
• Materials science (Master)
• Environmental technology (Master)
• Chemistry (Master and PhD)
• Social sciences (Master and PhD)
• Economics (Master)
• World Economy (Master and PhD)
• Energy engineering (Master and PhD)
• Biomedical engineering (Master)
• Information engineering (Master and PhD)
• Engineering management (Master)
• Electrical engineering (Master)
• Mechanical engineering (Master)
• Teaching and History of Sciences and Math (Master)
• Evolution (Master and PhD)
• Philosophy (Master)
• Physics (Master and PhD)
• Mathematics (Master and PhD)
• Nanotechnology (Master and PhD)
• Neuroscience (Master and PhD)
• Spatial planning (Master and PhD)
• Public Policies (Master)

High school

Since 2010 UFABC has offered a preparatory course for the ENEM, free for public school students in the ABC Region, as part of an extension project of the university. In this course, classes are held Monday through Friday by students from the undergraduate institution; these are complemented with cultural activities and lectures by professors from UFABC on Saturdays. Some of the students who teach classes are scholarship of the Pro-rectory of University Extension while the majority are student volunteers.

Selection of students

The first three classes of UFABC were formed through the selection processes via Vestibular. The students enrolled in the years 2007 to 2009.

From 2010 the selection of new students is done with the ENEM. classes. The Bachelor of Science and Technology of UFABC was the most sought-after course in the country in the "Unified Selecting System" (SISU) of Ministry of Education in 2010.

According to statistics collected by the institution, the Bachelor of Science and Technology (BC&T) had a demand of 13,758 applicants competing for 1,500 places (candidate/vacancy ratio of 9.2, with a 10,9% acceptance rate), while the Bachelor of Science and Humanities (BC&H) has 2320 registered for 200 places (candidate/vacancy ratio of 11.6, with an 8,6% acceptance rate).

There is a reservation of 50% of seats of all its courses in both periods (morning and evening) for candidates who attended high school in public schools, as well as those self-declared indigenous and African descent.

Infrastructure

The Federal University of ABC has modern facilities in the city of Santo André (SP) and facilities under construction in São Bernardo do Campo (SP).

Centers and cores

The university has abolished the system of "departments" and "schools" that exist in other universities. In UFABC, all professors are bound to one of three major Centres Interdisciplinary:

• CMCC - Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition
• CECS - Center of Engineering, Modelling and Applied Social Sciences
• CCNH - Centre for Natural Sciences and Humanities

Besides these, professors may be associated with the Interdisciplinary Centers linked to the rectory of UFABC:

NCSC - Center for Cognition and Complex Systems

NCTS - Center for Science, Technology and Society

There are organs like the President's Office, Office of International Affairs, Center for Information Technology and Center for Technological Innovation, in addition to several secretaries and numerous research groups.

Campus of Santo André

Santo André's Campus of the UFABC has six blocks, a total of 96409.03 square meters of built area in the headquarters campus of the university. The design of the campus of Santo André was by Libeskindllovet Architects S/S Ltda. and the construction work was in charge of the Constructor Augusto Velloso SA.

Besides these main blocks located between the Avenida dos Estados and Avenida Santa Adelia, in Santo André city, the UFABC has a building with teaching laboratory, computer rooms and classrooms on Avenida Altântica, in Valparaíso neighborhood, and an administrative headquarters at Rua Catequese, in Jardim neighborhood, both in Santo André. The university has acquired a large piece of land to the other side of the Avenida dos Estados (across from the current headquarters) to build new research laboratories and support to engineering.

Campus of São Bernardo do Campo

On 25 August 2009 President Lula, accompanied by first lady Marisa Leticia, the Minister of Education, Fernando Haddad, the mayor of Sao Bernardo do Campo, Luiz Marinho, the deputy mayor, Frank Aguiar, and the Senator of the state of São Paulo, Aloisio Mercadante, laid the foundation stone of the campus of UFABC the city of São Bernardo do Campo. The campus of São Bernardo do Campo UFABC has six blocks.

The project is designed by Benno Perelmutter Architecture and Planning S/C Ltda.

Besides these six blocks, UFABC has a building with teaching laboratory, computer rooms and classrooms located in downtown São Bernardo do Campo, in the former headquarters of the College Salete named Block Sigma.

University-enterprise integration

The Board of Education and Research (Consep) of UFABC published in 2010 a resolution asking for corporations and industries interested in signing agreements of internship to enable the students to form placements in these firms. More than 100 companies signed the agreement with UFABC in 2010. Among such companies are names like IBM, Itaú, Nestlé, Globo Organizations, General Motors (GM), Ford, Siemens, Honda, Sun Microsystems, Pirelli, BASF, and Accenture.

Sport

Students can play basketball, chess, handball, futsal, volleyball, swimming, table tennis, soccer, rugby and martial arts.

Students take part in competitions with universities throughout Brazil. In the Tournament "Semana da Asa" that occurs in the CTA, annually organized by the ITA, the athletes of UFABC won 3rd place overall in the first year of participation in 2008, and 1st place overall in the second year of participation in 2009;

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)