History
UNIP's Stricto Sensu Postgraduate Program in Production Engineering - PPGEP began its activities in 1997, at Master's level, and in 2007, at Doctorate level.
The initial Master's project took into account the expertise of the professionals, the institution's potential in terms of already consolidated undergraduate courses and market demand. Over time, these characteristics have undergone changes, respecting the very dynamics of a postgraduate program, which seeks out the state of the art and therefore adapts to the emergence of new areas of knowledge, methodologies and technological advances.
In 2007, with the maturing of the Master's program, which had already graduated 155 masters, as well as the growth in scientific production, evidenced by the publications in magazines and journals with a good reference in QUALIS, and based on meeting the goals of the PNPG, especially those aimed at contributing to society overcoming challenges in the field of industrial production and services, the Doctorate course was set up.
The need to adapt and update, based on CAPES guidelines, led to changes that better met the demands of the market and, by extension, those of the course.
The Research Line “Information Systems Technology”, for example, had its content, initially focused on software used in production systems (operations), reoriented towards software dedicated to Information Technology (IT), in view of the growth of applications in the various areas of production, such as integration, automation and logistics. This evolution, associated with the speed of change in IT, has led to research into the reliability and quality of the software used, plus content related to the LGPD, leading to a new adjustment of the Program's Research Lines.
With the implementation of the Doctorate and the need to increase the quantity and quality of articles, the “Projects and Articles Workshop” was introduced in 2011 as a compulsory activity with credit, with the aim of supporting students in writing articles. In 2013, articles began to be integrated into academic purposes as a relevant component, being included as part of theses and dissertations. This has led to a significant increase in the number of publications made during the period in which the work was being written, contrary to the tradition in which this production was an activity to be carried out only after the student had obtained their degree.
In 2015, in response to the growing demand for more in-depth studies on the themes of environmental sustainability, cleaner production and industrial ecology, it was decided to split off one of the Program's Lines of Research, creating a new Area of Concentration called “Sustainability in Production Systems”. Evaluations carried out since December 2017 indicate growth in the activities of the new Area, especially at international level. The creation of the Advances in Cleaner Production Network (ACPN), a multi-/interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of information and research results on technologies, concepts and policies based on Cleaner Production, designed to help the desired transition to a sustainable society, which took place at the 5th edition of the Workshop of Cleaner Production, has enabled successful international interfaces for knowledge, information exchange and increased research in partnership. UNIP's Interuniversity Sustainability Center is linked to several Regional Sustainability Centers: Beijing Normal University (Asia), University of Kent (Africa), University of Stellenbosch (Africa and Europe), Deakin University (Oceania), University of Firenze (Europe), La Costa University and University of Sonora (South America, Central America and the Caribbean), Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Manitoba (North America). Currently, the ACPN involves approximately 220 educational and research institutions from 51 countries, spread across five continents.
The “Business Networks and Production Planning” line of research has begun discussions about possible developments, taking into account CAPES' findings at meetings and in the mid-term evaluation. In addition to this motivation, there has been growth and interest in two broad-spectrum research projects, which have attracted the participation of students and the community. One deals with Industry 4.0 and the other with school meals provided by public authorities. The first was started in partnership with ABIMAQ/SINDIMAQ, in which equipment manufacturers and users present their development and application cases. The second studies the processes, management, production of family farming and other issues relating to school meals, in support of municipalities that have difficulties in setting up a system to meet the standards of this legal obligation of the state. Both projects have produced a significant number of theses, dissertations and articles.
Another research group, linked to this same line and dedicated to agribusiness, has developed studies focused on three areas of knowledge:
- Animal comfort: development of automatic control systems for safe animal husbandry;
- Grain logistics: transportation, storage and export;
- Recognition of food products by lay consumers, from the vegetable and fruit system, as well as their quality, using augmented reality and artificial intelligence resources in research.
The Program's internationalization goal was expanded with the expansion of international events and partnerships with foreign universities, resulting in visits by Brazilian professors abroad and foreign professors to Brazil from countries such as Poland, Romania, Lithuania, China, England and Serbia.
With the aim of contributing to the training of qualified staff in underprivileged regions of the country, the PPGEP proposed a DINTER in partnership with UNIFSA (Centro Universitário Santo Agostinho), in Teresina - Piauí. The DINTER was approved by CAPES in September 2018 and implemented in February 2019, with the participation of 15 students. In 2022, the DINTER program ended with eleven defenses of the fifteen initially planned.
It is important to note that the PPGEP/UNIP is located in the Greater São Paulo region, which has the highest concentration of inhabitants and jobs in the production and services sectors in Brazil. In this sense, the PPGEP has been contributing to the qualification of human resources, having graduated 399 masters and 151 doctors since it was set up until December 2024. It should also be noted that there are few postgraduate courses in Production Engineering, considering that in the Greater São Paulo region, home to 21 million people, there are only four programs, two of which only offer a Master's degree.