As of March, with the incorporation of a University Chapter (UC) unit at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Brazil’s five regions are present in the map of the B-MRS’s UCs. In addition, the map of the program gains a new spot in the state of São Paulo, through the participation of a team in the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), campus of São José dos Campos.

The UCs program, which now has 11 units, brings together undergraduate and graduate student teams from Brazilian universities around complementary activities for academic education.

According to the president of UFMS UC, Gustavo Sander Larios, M.S., the creation of the UC was motivated by the desire to increase interaction among students from different laboratories, departments and research groups. Thus, the team, which is made up of undergraduate, masters and PhD students from the areas of Materials Science, Physics and Chemistry, will stimulate the organization of seminars and scientific meetings involving members of the UC and researchers from B-MRS. “We intend to promote activities that stimulate the development of scientific knowledge, given the national and international research trends, provided through the interaction among the UC members,”adds Larios. The supervisor of this unit is Professor Cícero Rafael Cena da Silva.

At the UC of the University of São José dos Campos, UNIFESP, the main objective is to disseminate Materials Engineering and Science among university students from all over the Vale do Paraíba region and also in society as a whole, says the master’s Verônica Ribeiro dos Santos, president of the unit, and Professor Manuel Henrique Lente, the supervisor of the UC. The team intends to “divulge the concept of Materials Engineering, since for many it is still unknown, given the great diversity of areas of expertise that the professional in this field is capable of carrying out.” According to Verônica Ribeiro dos Santos and professor Manuel Henrique Lente, the group aspires, in the future, to make their UC an extracurricular source of scientific and technological knowledge and to increase the number of members. Some of the activities the team intends to promote are: seminar cycles involving students and researchers from UNIFESP and other institutions; lectures by representatives of S&T support agencies, class entities, industrial sectors, etc.; technical visits to R&D institutes, companies and incubators; summer courses; dissemination lectures in high schools. In order to carry out the activities, the UC has a comprehensive team of 24 undergraduate students (Bachelor’s degree in Science and Technology, and Materials Engineering), three master’s and one doctoral students (Post-graduation in Materials Science and Engineering, PPGECM), all from UNIFESP.

Get to know B-MRS’s UCs Program and the eleven units it has so far in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo: https://www.sbpmat.org.br/en/university-chapters/ucs-da-sbpmat/