The Industrial Engineering Department – DEI, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, started its activities in 1967, when it created Brazil’s first Master Program in Production Engineering. After acting 15 years only in the master degree, in the university extension and service disciplines for other PUC-Rio courses, in 1982 its recently created Production Engineering Undergraduate Course was duly recognized by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Today this course, in its several habilitations, is responsible for more than half of the engineers that PUC-Rio qualifies each year.
In 1993, the Department implemented its Doctorate Program in Production Engineering, which has been immediately recommend by CAPES, an agency of the Ministry of Education, which is responsible for the evaluation of Graduate courses in the Country. In 2001, attending the increasing demand for professionals with technical formation to act in the industrial logistic management, the DEI created the Professional Master Degree in Logistic (also in the stricto sensu graduate level), which envisages to offer intellectual knowledge and training for a more immediate industrial application.
During its existence, the DEI received a rich influence of several national and foreign institutions, through the diverse formation of its professors, and also via academic interchange programs, such as those realized with the Stanford University, the Operational Research Center of Zürich, the University of Montreal, the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures de Paris, and the Mid Swedish University.
The Graduate courses of the Department, encompassing Master and Doctorate Degrees, have the objective to attend the formation demand of researchers and highly qualified personnel, and through this process generate and disseminate new knowledge applicable to productive organizations. Several companies and public agencies are research project partners, thus allowing that the academic investigation encompasses a large spectrum of problems, which since from the improvement opportunity identification up to the evaluation of the results obtained through the original or still little known managerial techniques, passing through the limited scale implementation of the solutions developed in the Department. Among these research partners are companies such as PETROBRAS, Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, Companhia Siderúrgica de Tubarão and Rede Ferroviária Federal, with which PUC-Rio maintains technical cooperation covenants, as well as small and medium size companies, with which the informal cooperation predominates.
Since its creation, the DEI always presented an integrated acting in the undergraduate and graduate, via the activity of its primary lecturer board. The dedication of mentioned key force to undergraduate is distributed in an equilibrated manner among the lecturers.
Differential
One marking characteristic of the Industrial Engineering Department is its numerically reduced Permanent Board, with 13 highly qualified fulltime working professors, who actively engaged in instruction and research. In a department of such size, the excellence is a strategic factor. This imposes a constant concern to quality, a strong integration among the concentration areas, and a concentrated effort in few researching lines. To keep the flexibility, reach high productivity levels and conduct its graduation students to the vision of professionals with entrepreneurial experience, the DEI complements its Main Board with approximately 25 Professors of the Supplementary Board (in partial time). In its research and didactic activities, the DEI still counts with eventual academic collaborators.
The DEI always had an integrated action in the undergraduate and graduate through the didactic activities of its Main Board, via the participation of graduate students in training programs and the involvement of undergraduate students in scientific initiation researches and sponsoring projects. The Main Board dedication to undergraduate and graduate is distributed in a balanced manner among the lecturers, whereas many of them also act in an university extension next to companies.
The majority of the graduate students is formed by engineers, but also economists, administrators and students undergraduated in other courses participate in the Program. Frequently are also accepted students sent from companies to improve their academic qualification in the Program. The DEI has a modern and large computer local area network, which gives access to national and international networks. A sophisticated and varied software set is turned available to the students and researchers, thus allowing the utilization of databases and quantitative methods for research and training, as well as a simple and fast access to scientific information that is available in other research centers. The DEI still offers study facilities to its graduate students, and besides the sectoral and central libraries of PUC-Rio, it also turns available to its students a small collection of books and documents of frequent or specialized use. The non-published research results are distributed in technical reports by means of direct request to the Industrial Engineering Department Secretary.
At the Undergraduate level, the Department offers the course on Production Engineering, envisaging to prepare the student for a global operation, and render an intercultural perspective. Following the PUC-Rio policy, the DEI tries to stimulate the international interchange with well-known universities abroad, orienting its students in the study program formulation, and receiving foreign student of all levels. The DEI undergraduate students with prominent academic performance are also participating of double undergraduate programs with high prestige European institutions. These programs allow the student to obtain diplomas that are valid in Brazil and in the European Community.
Its creation as a department primordially turned to the master degree, established a culture of solidarity, cordiality and informality among professors, students and employees, which is based on mutual respect and on the merit recognition. Even with the large growth of its teaching staff, the DEI looks forward to preserve this environment.