Of the deficiencies that affect the Northern region of Brazil, the most difficult to develop is the lack of qualified personnel, without which it is difficult to efficiently harness the region's natural resources, support industrial development and promote the socioeconomic growth of its population.
In this context, the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Program (PPGEM), of the Federal University of Pará, aims to train qualified human resources and encourage the research and deepening of technical and scientific studies related to the field of Mechanical Engineering with application and the needs of the Amazon region. These objectives are focused on the three lines of research that comprise the Program: Characterization and Materials Processing, Energy Conversion and Environment and Vibrations and Acoustics. In the three-year period 2004-2006, the Program sought to improve its performance through a series of restructuring actions which are described below: expansion of the faculty of the newest area, Vibrations and Acoustics; renewal of permanent professors in other areas; definition of minimum results for the permanence of professors in the board; adaptation of the Research Lines to Amazonian reality and needs; monitoring the progress of dissertations in order to reduce evasion and titration time; reformulation of the curriculum, physical space and regiments and internal norms; incentive for professors of the program to obtain external funding from UFPA to finance projects and fellowships; encouraging professors to interact with the productive sector; Professors program to publish Qualis indexed journals in partnership with Program and undergraduate students.
Some of the most listed actions were published in a year in 2007 and more strongly in the year 2008. Improvement of a course schedule available, increases in no number of defenses, no number of externally funded projects, interaction with the productive sector and, mainly, an improvement in the number of publications in indexed journals.
The current trend of the Program indicates an intensification of relations with the productive sector. In 2008, 11 new projects were started, coupled with a modernization of the laboratories of the research groups (two undergoing renovation and two under construction). These activities are attracting undergraduate students to participate in the projects, increasing the number of students who seek to do the Master's degree and creating a propitious environment for knowledge generation suited to Amazonian needs. It is expected that results management of PPGEM coordination together with the setting of productivity targets (publication of articles, patents, etc.) will lead to improved program performance and drive all other aspects of the course, such as level of dissertations.
This trend towards an approximation of the productive sector has been going on for the last three years through the performance of the four PPGEM research groups (EBMA, GVA, GETSOLDA, GPEMAT) that have identified Amazon niches for their activities and have been associated with researchers from other UFPA and other national institutions to meet the regional demands. EBMA collaborated with researchers from UFPA's Chemical Engineering, researchers from UNICAMP, USP, UnB and international researchers from CIRAD (France) to meet the energy needs of the agroindustrial sector with emphasis on the timber sector. The GVA has a very intense cooperation with the Eletronorte making prediction of wear in turbines and generator sets through the analysis of vibrations. GETSOLDA has a partnership with Petrobras for the development of welding and coating procedures for the application in the oil and gas industry. GEPMAT develops new alloys for the constitution of electrical cables to be applied by manufacturers located in the Industrial Pole of Vila do Conde-PA. The Pneumatic Transport Laboratory has cooperation with local mining company to develop methodologies for transporting particulate matter in suspension, aiming the transport of ore from the mine to the point of shipment of the product. The Polymeric Materials Group is proposing new composites starting from agro-industrial waste with applications in the civil construction sector, and has acted in an educational way in public high schools and technical schools in the awareness and use of waste as recyclable.