Federal University of ABC


Federal University of ABC is a Brazilian institution of higher learning based in Santo André, with operations in several municipalities in the ABC region, all in the state of São Paulo.
The chairman of the committee that formulated the proposal of the university was Luiz Bevilacqua, who became its second rector.
UFABC is the only federal university in Brazil with 100% of its professors holding Ph.D.s 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.

History and expansion

In 2004, the Ministry of Education sent to Congress the Bill 3962/2004, which created the Federal University of ABC. This law was enacted by the president and published in the Official Gazette of 27 July 2005, under No. 11,145 and dated 26 July 2005.
UFABC aims at the integration of several campi in the ABC Region. Campi are located in the cities of Santo André and São Bernardo do Campo.

Deans

UFABC first dean was the former dean from UNICAMP, professor Hermano Tavares, whose term lasted from 2005 until 2007.
Tavares was succeeded by the former president of the Brazilian Space Agency, professor Luiz Bevilacqua, who was his vice-rector and chair of the committee of implementation of the university.
For health reasons, Bevilacqua resigned in mid-2008, and was succeeded by the former president of the Brazilian Society of Physics, professor Adalberto Fazzio.
In January 2010, President Lula appointed the former dean of research of the UNICAMP and professor of USP, Helio Waldman to hold the post of rector of UFABC for the next four years.

Recognition

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 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. 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.
Different disciplines have different evaluation systems. One may have three, two, one or no exams at all. There may also be a student project and one or two exams.
Students who get a lower than C grade have the option to do one last exam, which is sometimes referred to as "recovery exam", that can increase their grade up to a C. If one gets an F and doesn't do well on the recovery exam, they will have to redo the discipline.

Coefficients

At UFABC, all undergrad students have four coefficients. They are the, the, the and the.

CR ("''Coeficiente de Rendimento''", orYield Coefficient)

It represents how well the student is doing at the disciplines. As mentioned, it is the equivalent of the GPA. It can be calculated by the following formula:
Where is the number of completed disciplines, is the grade on that discipline, is the discipline's credits and is:
and.

CA ("''Coeficiente Acadêmico''", or Academic Coefficient)

It is similar to the CR, however, if a student takes the same discipline multiple times, only the one with the higher grade will be accounted. It is calculated using the following formula:
Where is the number of different disciplines taken by the student, is the number of credits on that discipline is the greatest grade on that discipline. is:
and.

CPk ("''Coeficiente de Progressão''", or Progression Coefficient)

Represents the ratio between the approved disciplines' credits on a course and the total of credits on that course. It grows as the student finishes disciplines according to their category. When it reaches 1, it means that student has finished all the required credits on that course. Its formula is:
Where:
It combines the, the and the number of periods a student has studied on the university. The calculation is as follows:

Bachelor of Science and Technology (BC&T)

Bachelor of Science and Technology is a general course that teaches the foundation on mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and computer science, while giving a slight introduction on human sciences. The idea behind that is to have students working with interdisciplinary subjects via a methodology that encourages an investigative approach to situations and stimulates scientific research and production.
Examples of subjects studied are:
The course takes a total of 2,400 hours of study to be completed.

Bachelor of Science and Humanities (BC&H)

The Bachelor of Science and Humanities is a course of general science. The initiation in Natural Science, Formal, Social, and Philosophy is through lectures with participation in research groups, under the supervision of a senior researcher.
The course also takes 2,400 hours to finish.

Post-BC&T and post-BC&H degrees

After completing either the BC&T or the BC&H, the student can choose up to two specific degrees to pursue. Students that graduate on BC&T have the following options:
Students that graduate on BC&H, can choose between :
from UFABC.|One of the laboratories in materials science from UFABC.

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. 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 of the European Organization for Nuclear Research that is operating the largest particle accelerator ever built and also in the DZero Experiment of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory 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, 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, UNICAMP, Unifesp, USP, UFSCar, the Brazilian National Synchrotron Light Laboratory, the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Brazilian General Command for Aerospace Technology, the Eletronuclear, the Institute for Research on Stem Cells, the Brazilian National Laboratory for Scientific Computing, the Braziliam Navy Technology Center, the National Institute of Science and Technology for Optical Communications, the ICMC-USP, the Brazilian Society of Biophysics, UFRGS, UNIFEI and UNIFENAS.
The university collaborates with research institutes as the Max Planck Institute, the Paris-Sud 11 University, the National Acoustic Laboratories and the Pierre Auger Observatory, the National Institute for Materials Science, the University of Texas System, the Universidade do Algarve and the Universidade de Coimbra.

Undergraduate research

For science projects the institution created the PDPD program, where first-year students participate in research projects funded by the institution and supervised by doctors.
Besides this program, students from other university years participate in undergraduate research programs with funding from organs such as the Institutional Program of Scientific Initiation, PIC-UFABC and PIBIC-UFABC, financed with resources from the UFABC. There is also the PIBIC-CNPq, financed by CNPq and PIBIC-Affirmative Action a pilot program launched and funded in UFABC by CNPq that provides scholarships for research by undergraduate students who entered the university system by affirmative actions. Students can also obtain research grants from organs such as Fapesp.
The university has instituted a Scholarship Assistance - Events, which finances the participation of its students in extracurricular activities such as presentation of scientific work and going to technological events such as the Campus Party.

Infrastructure for research

The campus of Santo André has equipment such as Atomic force microscopy and Tunneling, Circular dichroism, Elemental Analysis, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy of High Resolution, Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Gas chromatograph, Atomic Emission Spectroscopy, Infrared spectroscopy, Potentiostat / Galvanostat, Centrifuge Refrigerated Superspeed, Absorption Spectroscopy and Atomic Emission For Multicomponent Analysis, Gas Chromatography-Mass Detector, Liquid Chromatography System, Modular Electrochemical Microscope, Spectroscopy of Fluorescence, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer, Differential scanning calorimetry, Thermogravimetric Analysis, Optical microscope, High performance liquid chromatography Coupled With Mass spectrometry With Mass Detector, Scanning electron microscope, X-ray crystallography, wind tunnel and supersonic wind tunnel.
In addition, UFABC has two networks of high-performance computers. The Chromo UFABC went into operation in June 2007 and is a project financed by FAPESP and CNPq, and the Bull Novascale UFABC is a project funded by CAPES.

Library

The library website provides services such as queries to the collection, and renewal of loans of books. Also available are a list of acquisitions in recent months and the articles published on scientific journals by researchers of the UFABC. In addition, the library website is integrated to Twitter via Twitter @AnyWhere allowing interaction among the users of the system.

Postgraduate education

The UFABC has courses of postgraduate education approved by the Capes. They are:

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" of Ministry of Education in 2010.
According to statistics collected by the institution, the Bachelor of Science and Technology had a demand of 13,758 applicants competing for 1,500 places, while the Bachelor of Science and Humanities has 2320 registered for 200 places.
There is a reservation of 50% of seats of all its courses in both periods 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 and facilities under construction in São Bernardo do Campo.

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:
Besides these, professors may be associated with the Interdisciplinary Centers linked to the rectory of UFABC:
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 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 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, 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;
In 2010, the Engenharíadas tournament brought together engineering colleges), the University Games Paulistanos, the Liga Deportiva Universitaria Paulista and the Cup of the University of São Carlos, the TUSCA,.

Academic Athletic Association September XI

On 11 September 2006, the first class entered the Federal University of ABC. In 2007 a group of students began the Athletic UFABC, starting the Academic Athletic Association XI September, AXIS, whose name was chosen in homage to the days of the first class.
AXIS is now a student representation recognized by UFABC formed by an elected board and that represents all athletes of the university. The Athletics of UFABC supports sports at the university, and conducts the selection of athletes for the leagues in which they participate.
The campuses of UFABC have sports fields, swimming pools, gyms and sports courts. Furthermore, AXIS has agreements with SESI of Santo André and with Santo André's Club Bochófilo for the use of sport facilities of these sites by the students of the institution.
AXIS works closely with the DCE of UFABC organizing parties, sponsoring the travel of athletes, performing the manufacture and sale of customized sports equipment, and providing training and transportation for the athletes to participate in tournaments and doing extra activities such as mountaineering, abseiling and internal tournaments.
Groups linked to Athletic's UFABC are Cheerleaders, the Infantry and the Martial Arts Group, who train practitioners of Karate, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do and other martial arts.

Student representation

The DCE represents the graduate students. Its members are chosen in an annual election in which all undergraduates can vote. The Directory of UFABC was established in 2008, from the former Academic Center, and helps students' stay, by helping with their problems, monitoring projects that relate to academic life, as discussions in ConsEP, ConsUni and CEU.
The UFABC has student organizations representing groups of students. Some of these are officially recognized by the university while others rely on the coordination of support from professors and education cores, including: