History

The Postgraduate Programme in Civil Engineering (PEC) of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) was created in 2016,  and started its Master Course (Master of Science – MSc degree) in 2017 and its PhD Course (Doctor of Science – DSc degree) in 2024. The Programme is originated from the Civil Engineering BEng course, which is over 100 years old and is one of the pillars of the Faculty of Engineering. It is important to mention that the Faculty of Engineering of the UFJF played and still plays an important role in the development of Juiz de Fora and other cities in the region.

PEC started its activities in early 2017 with its MSc Course. The Programme had 11 researchers, all members of departments which compose the Civil Engineering BEng course: Department of Civil Construction; Department of Structures; Department of Geotechnics and Transportation; Department of Applied and Computational Mechanics. At the beginning, PEC had only one Knowledge Area, Structures and Materials, with two Lines of Research: Construction Materials and Components & Mechanics of Structures. In early 2020, six new researchers from the Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering joined PEC, which created its second Knowledge Area in Sanitation and Environment, with two Lines of Research: Monitoring and Management of Natural Resources & Environmental Technologies. In 2024 PEC oppened started its PhD course.

Currently the Postgraduate Programme in Civil Engineering (PEC) has a total of 23 researchers who collaborate between themselves to teach and develop research in topics related with Civil and Environmental Engineering. There are collaborations with researchers from other universities in Brazil and abroad. Finally, every academic year PEC has over 20 new MSc students and 10 PhD candidates who have a series of lectures and laboratory/research work in order to develop their MSc dissertation and PhD thesis.