COPPE
/Presentation
Coppe – The Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering – is Latin America’s largest center for research and education in engineering. It was founded in 1963 by the engineer Alberto Luiz Coimbra. With Coppe, Coimbra contributed to the introduction of graduate studies in Brazil. The institution has awarded more than 13 thousand masters and doctors’ degrees from its 13 departments.
Based on three pillars – academic excellence; full-time faculty and students, and commitment to society –, Coppe has distinguished itself by producing knowledge, highly qualified professionals, and innovative teaching methods. With all that, Coppe has become a model for other universities and research institutes across the country.
Coppe is Brazil’s leading engineering graduate institute, having the highest number of courses rated 7 (highest grade possible), which is equivalent to the performance of the most important and respected research and teaching centers in the world.
Annually, over 500 masters and doctors graduate from Coppe. Its students are not only prepared to deal with subjects at the frontier of knowledge, but also how to be in touch with the needs of the society.
Pioneer in the academia-society approach
Coppe has Latin America’s largest laboratorial complex in engineering with more than 100 high-level facilities. The knowledge accumulated in Coppe’s facilities is channeled to the economic, technological and social development of Brazil through contracts and agreements with companies, governments, and NGOs. These documents are administered by the Coppetec Foundation. Since its creation in 1970, the Coppetec Foundation has administered more than 12,000 contracts and partnerships with national and international, private and state-owned companies and governmental and non-governmental agencies.
As Coppe is always looking to the future, it was a pioneer in connecting academia and society, prompting the transformation of knowledge into prosperity for Brazilians. Its crucial role in the development of technologies in the oil and gas field has contributed to Brazil’s leadership in deepwater oil exploration and production. Coppe’s historic partnership with Petrobras has become a model of a successful partnership between companies and universities.
In 1994, Coppe created its Technology-based Business Incubator which has facilitated the introduction of more than 100 innovative products and services to the market. Coppe stimulated the establishment of the Federal University’s Science Park, which is located in the Fundão Island. The Science Park has research centers of large companies and many laboratories owned by Coppe. One of these, LabOceano, which was established in 2003, was the first facility in the Science Park.
In addition to that, Coppe also puts the technology to the use of the fight against poverty and inequality. In that regard, Coppe established the Technological Incubator of Popular Cooperatives in 1995. This incubator has become a reference model for other states and countries. One hundred and eighteen cooperatives have been formed, and 2,100 jobs have been created.
International activities
Coppe has been a national and worldwide model in engineering education and research, and has helped Brazil face its most important challenges over its recent history. Coppe has joint research projects with various internationally renowned scientific institutions. In addition to that, Coppe is very proud of its faculty members’ participation in international committees, research institutions and multilateral bodies, such as the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
In 2008, Coppe created the China-Brazil Center for Climate Change and Innovative Energy Technologies in partnership with Tsinghua University, which is the most prominent Chinese university in the field of engineering. The Center is headquartered at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, in which there is an office that is responsible to the coordination of activities and the establishment of contacts with Brazilian and Chinese companies that are potentially interested in technologies to be jointly developed.
Following the success of its first international center, Coppe endeavored to a second one. The Coppe-Columbia Center for Urban Solutions was established in 2014. This initiative marks a partnership with the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science of Columbia University. The Coppe-Columbia Center has promoted two design challenges with students from both institutions. They had to come up with creative solutions concerning water and sensing in the urban context.
Finally, as a pioneer in the studies on climate change, Coppe hosts the Brazilian Forum of Climate Change, the Brazilian Panel of Climate Change and the World Centre for Sustainable Development.