IT in Brazil: Academic Challenges

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IT in Brazil Academic Challenges

• Flávio Soares Corrêa da Silva (org.)
• Microsoft Faculty Summit
• Redmond, USA, July 2006

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Brazil means...
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Brazil also means...
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Brazil also means...

• Geographically large country
• Large population (about 180 million people)
• Extreme regional diversity
• Population density
• Economic activity
• Wealth
• Social issues
• Health care issues
• Cultural, academic and scientific activities

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Brazil population density
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Brazil economic activity
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Brazil investment in RD
Source UNESCO
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Brazil investment in RD
Source UNESCO
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Brazil academic activity
Source CNPq
About 17 of researchers in Brazil are devoted
to Engineering and Computer Science
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Brazil academic activity
Source CNPq
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Brazil academic activity

• Brazilian guest researchers at Microsoft Faculty
  Summit 2006
• Rio de Janeiro (Southeast)
• Catholic University
• Clarisse S. de Souza, Simone Barbosa
• Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics
• Paulo Cezar P. Carvalho
• Sao Paulo (Southeast)
• State University of Sao Paulo
• Tereza Cristina M. B. Carvalho, Flavio S. Correa
  da Silva
• State University of Campinas
• Cecilia M. F. Rubira
• Pernambuco (Northeast)
• Federal University of Pernambuco
• Andre Santos

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Brazil academic activity

• Not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively
  there are contrasts
• Quality of teaching varies significantly across
  academic institutions
• Quality and significance of research varies
  across academic institutions
• Some academic institutions are very mature as
  relates to research management, whereas others
  are utterly immature

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Brazil some actions

• Brazilian Computing Society
• Nationwide organization of research activities
  across SIGs
• General curricula guidelines for IT
• General evaluation procedures for existing and
  proposed courses related to IT

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Brazil some actions

• Brazilian Computing Society SIGs

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Brazil some actions

• CAPES
• QUALIS classification of journals, conferences,
  etc. according to academic impact
• Evaluation of graduate programs classification
  of academic institutions high ranked
  institutions are given priorities for
  scholarships etc.

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Brazil some actions

• LATTES
• Nationwide database of human resources in
  science, organized to allow a variety of queries
  and searches

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Brazil grand challenges in IT2006-2016

• Initiative Brazilian Computing Society
• Grand challenges
• Information management for large, distributed,
  multimedia datasets
• Computational modeling of complex systems
  (natural, artificial, socio-cultural,
  human/nature interaction)
• Non-silicon based computing
• Participative and universal access to information
  and knowledge
• High quality technological development systems
  that must be available, correct, reliable,
  scalable, persistent and ubiquitous

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Brazil grand challenges in IT2006-2016

• Concrete initiatives
• Component-based software development
• Digital inclusion
• Large-scale digital libraries
• IT for agribusiness
• Wireless sensor networks
• High speed networks
• Telemedicine
• HDTV transmission
• E-learning
• E-government
• Ubiquitous computing
• Digital narrative / digital entertainment
• Bioinformatics
• CS and humanities
• Foundational and methodological issues
• AND MANY MORE

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IT in Brazil Academic Challenges
THANK YOU Flávio Soares Corrêa da
Silva Microsoft Faculty Summit Redmond, USA, July
2006