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Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Brazil Exchange Program

RioDeganeiro

Rio de Janeiro – you could be living here!

2007 - 2008 Brazil – U.S. Engineering Exchange Program FIPSE Brazil Engineering Exchange Scholarships

Spend eight months in Brazil studying engineering and learning Portuguese – and we pay for it.

Here’s how it works.

You take FLP101 (Portuguese 1) at NC State and then, with scholarship funds we provide, you live in Brazil from January to August (so you’re there for Carnival in February) or from August to December. In Brazil, you take courses in both Portuguese and engineering.

You will not only earn course credit toward your engineering degree, but you will acquire the NCSU International Certificate in Engineering. And you will become proficient in Portuguese while learning about Brazil and its culture, people and history.

Importante informação

Global engineering in today's world.

According to a CNN report, "At Stanford [University], career experts are urging engineering and science majors to get internships and jobs outside of their comfort zones -- in marketing, finance, sales and even consulting. They suggest students develop foreign language skills to land jobs as cross-cultural project managers."

It’s absolutely true that companies in the U.S. must compete worldwide in order to be successful. Products and services must meet the sociological and technical constraints of other countries – and these products and services are being designed by teams of engineers from different countries working together via direct contact and the Internet. The engineers involved have lived abroad and are proficient in another language.

The exchange program with Brazil was designed to provide students with appropriate global engineering skills and experiences.

Program description

You have two options for taking engineering or business courses in Brazil:

  1. You can take Portuguese in the fall semester and leave for Brazil the second week in January. You live in Rio de Janeiro and study Portuguese daily until the Brazilian semester begins in March (this is their summer and Carnival time, when you are off for two weeks during Carnival). You continue to study Portuguese during the Brazilian academic semester, along with engineering or business courses. You may take the Brazilian Government Language Certification exam, given in April only. If you pass it, the Brazilian government certifies you as proficient in Portuguese.
  2. You can take Portuguese in the spring semester and leave for Brazil the second week in June. You live in Rio de Janeiro and study Portuguese daily until the Brazilian semester begins in August. You continue to study Portuguese during the Brazilian academic semester, along with engineering or business courses.

What you get from the program

  • Credit toward your engineering degree for engineering courses taken in Brazil
  • Business course credits toward your non-engineering degree requirements (check with your advisor)
  • A Portuguese Language Proficiency Certificate from the Brazilian government, if you pass the Brazilian Government Language Exam
  • The ability to travel and work in Brazil as a practicing engineer

Courses you can take in Brazil

Note: These are pdf files. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader if you don’t already have it.

Industrial engineering students click here for the industrial engineering and business courses you can take.

Other engineering students need to work with their departmental advisor and with Dr. Young to determine the appropriate engineering courses to be taken. Business courses are listed here.


Minimum requirements

  • You must have taken two or three years of Spanish, Latin or Italian in high school, or two years in college.
  • You must be either an NCSU or NCA&T engineering student and must meet either university's study abroad requirements. Please go to the respective Study Abroad website or office for these requirements.

NCSU Study Abroad Office

  • Ms. Ingrid Schmidt
  • Director
  • 2118 Pullen Hall
  • 919-515-2087

NC A&T International Programs Office

  • Ms. Minnie Battle Mayes
  • Director
  • Room A-16, C.H. Moore Building
  • 336-334-7104

Financial Support

Financial support is available for ALL students accepted into the program. This includes funds for airfare, lodging, food and other expenses while in Brazil. You must register at your home university and pay your regular tuition; since you pay tuition at your home university, you pay no tuition at Brazilian universities.

Brazil

Brazil is the largest country in South America and one of the largest countries in the world – the 48 continental states in the U.S. would fit inside Brazil with more than 10 percent of Brazil to spare. With a population of 170 million people, it’s also the most populous country in South America. Originally a Portuguese colony, it has a large indigenous Indian population and is an ethnically diverse country with people from Africa, Europe and Asia.

Learn more about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro.

The Brazilian Universities

You will attend one of these two Brazilian universities:

  1. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The UFRJ is located in Rio de Janeiro on the coast. Rio de Janeiro is a city of 8 million people, and the university is located on an island across the harbor from the city center. UFRJ has approximately 50,000 students and is a commuter campus. Students typically have a 30 to 45 minute commute to campus via public transportation. Visit UFRJ for details on the campus and industrial engineering (known as production engineering in Brazil).
  2. Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). UFJF is located in Juiz de Fora in the mountains northwest of Rio de Janeiro, approximately a two-hour drive from Rio. Juiz de Fora is a city of 500,000 people, and the university is located on a mountain overlooking the city. UFJF has approximately 8,000 students. Students live in apartments next to campus and either drive or walk to campus. Details about the campus are at UFJF and information on the IE department (production engineering in Brazil) is at Iedept .

Joint Brazil/U.S. Engineering design projects

To expose engineering students to global engineering, we’ve created a pilot engineering project requiring joint teams from Brazil and the U.S. to organize and solve the design problem via the Internet. The pilot is between NCSU and UFJF, with two project teams. The project will be expanded to include NCA&T and UFRJ and more engineering teams next year. The pilot’s objectives are:

  • To provide engineering students with firsthand experience in applying the engineering design process to a multinational, global engineering project.
  • To help students gain experience in working via the Internet with another design team to design an artifact.
  • To give students experience in working with an engineering team in another country.
  • To offer students the experience of working with an engineering team that speaks another language.

A detailed project description is available from Joint Design Project

.

Applying to the program

NCSU students:
  • Contact Dr. Robert E. Young
  • Professor of Industrial Engineering
  • North Carolina State University
  • 211 Park Shops Building
  • (919) 515-7201
  • young@ncsu.edu

Or contact the study abroad office

NCA&T students:
  • Contact Dr. Sanjiv Sarin
  • Associate Dean of Engineering and Professor of Industrial Engineering
  • North Carolina A&T State University
  • 651 McNair Hall
  • 336-334-7589
  • sarin@ncat.edu

Make your contact early – like today…before the money is gone!

This project (project no. P116M020013) is sponsored in part by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education. For more information please see the FIPSE website and the U.S. Department of Education website at www.ed.gov.