STUDY OF HOW TO IMPLEMENT SIGNIFICANT
IMPROVEMENTS TO THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF
UFRJ (POLI) AND THE DEPARTMENT OF
ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING (DEL)
Gonzalo Salvador Crespo
Projeto de Graduação apresentado ao Curso de
Engenharia Eletrônica e de Computação da Escola
Politécnica, Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro, como parte dos requisitos necessários à
obtenção do título de Engenheiro.
Orientador: Sergio Palma Medeiros
Rio de Janeiro
Julho de 2015
ii
STUDY OF HOW TO IMPLEMENT SIGNIFICANT
IMPROVEMENTS TO THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF
UFRJ (POLI) AND THE DEPARTMENT OF
ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING (DEL)
Gonzalo Salvador Crespo
PROJETO DE GRADUAÇÃO SUBMETIDO AO CORPO DOCENTE DO CURSO DE
ENGENHARIA ELETRÔNICA E DE COMPUTAÇÃO DA ESCOLA POLITÉCNICA
DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO COMO PARTE DOS
REQUISITOS NECESSÁRIOS PARA A OBTENÇÃO DO GRAU DE ENGENHEIRO
ELETRÔNICO E DE COMPUTAÇÃO
Autor:
_________________________________________________
Gonzalo Salvador Crespo
Orientador:
_________________________________________________
Prof. Sergio Palma da Justa Medeiros
Examinador:
_________________________________________________
Prof. Carlos José Ribas D'Avila
Examinador:
_________________________________________________
Prof. Sérgio Barbosa Villas-Boas
Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brasil
Julho de 2015
iii
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO
Escola Politécnica – Departamento de Eletrônica e de Computação
Centro de Tecnologia, bloco H, sala H-217, Cidade Universitária
Rio de Janeiro – RJ CEP 21949-900
Este exemplar é de propriedade da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, que
poderá incluí-lo em base de dados, armazenar em computador, microfilmar ou adotar
qualquer forma de arquivamento.
É permitida a menção, reprodução parcial ou integral e a transmissão entre
bibliotecas deste trabalho, sem modificação de seu texto, em qualquer meio que esteja ou
venha a ser fixado, para pesquisa acadêmica, comentários e citações, desde que sem
finalidade comercial e que seja feita a referência bibliográfica completa.
Os conceitos expressos neste trabalho são de responsabilidade do autor.
iv
DEDICATÓRIA
To my father Antonio Salvador Calvo, my mother Mercedes Crespo Usano and
my brother Álvaro Salvador Crespo.
And to all my friends and classmates that supported me along the way to achieve
my goal to graduate.
v
AGRADECIMENTO
As I have just mentioned, in the first place I dedicate this composition to my dearly
family who has given my unlimited support through all this years, enormous thanks to all
of them.
They have always been there when I needed them and when I thought I would not
be able to finish the degree, they will be even happier than me the day I will present this
project consolidating the title of Electrical and Computer Science Engineer.
Also to my fellow friends and classmates from my hometown, Madrid. All I can
forget now is the great amount of mornings and evenings spent in the library getting ready
for final exams period. All that time together built a strong friendship which will remain
for life.
Thanks to my counsellor on the project, Prof. Sergio Palma, for the time he
dedicated on helping me and how he showed me a different view of the Brazilian culture
from an economic view.
Also to the coordinator of the department, Carlos José Ribas D'Avila for being a
big help when I first arrived and did not know anything about the country, school or
department and also after several months. Always being able to give me a hand to solve
any problem I would have to face.
To my home school for giving me the opportunity to come to Brazil to write my
thesis at the UFRJ. To allow me learn about the culture, the language and the customs of
the country of Brazil.
To my former job in Telefónica España which gave me formation and funds to
finance my trip and my living expenses in Brazil and also allowing me to take a break on
my contract to come to Brazil.
The experiences lived and new knowledge acquired will be put into practice once
I return to Spain and the trust conceded by my boss will me reward it with my new skills.
vi
And for the last but not the least I dedicate this work and thank to the country of
Brazil which contributed on a significant way to my scholar formation on this great
University.
This project is a small retribution for the investment and trust that I kindly received
when I was accepted on the exchange program and to be able to access to the DEL at
UFRJ.
vii
RESUMO
Atualmente a sociedade está continuamente se atualizando e se desenvolvendo
para se adaptar as grandes mudanças que o futuro nos traz. Especialmente aqui na América
do Sul onde as coisas são bem diferentes comparados ao Oeste europeu e a América do
Norte. São incontáveis as mudanças que acontecem diariamente e as pessoas tem que se
adaptar a elas.
Por essas razões esse projeto é focado em como nossa Escola Politécnica POLI
(UFRJ) e concretamente o DEL podem melhorar alguns de seus recursos e qualificações
para se posicionarem com as melhores escolas nacionais e internacionais.
Esse projeto contém muitos objetivos e metas parciais para ser alcançado nos
próximos anos e décadas. Essas metas têm estratégias diferentes associadas a elas para
aborda-las da melhor maneira.
Além das sugestões de planes diversos que devem ser usados na pratica, existe um
rascunho de como financiar o grande projeto principal com metas menores e marcos onde
a um tempo determinado de quando atingir cada objetivo ao longo do projeto principal.
Haverá uma pequena parte para estabelecer os riscos de como aplicar todas essas
mudanças e atualizar o departamento de a escola.
Junto dos riscos também existe uns planos de prevenção e contingência para
minimizar o dano dos riscos caso as coisas não vão como o esperado.
Depois de todos esses passos que foram projetados e definido os objetivos, as
estratégias para atingir esses objetivos, os investimentos necessários para esses passos e
uma linha de tempo para o projeto, os riscos que podem haver durante a implementação
do projeto e os planos de prevenção e contingência para os possíveis problemas que podem
ocorrer durante a operação. Para finalizar o documento de forma correta e formal, terão
mais dois seguimentos para oficializa-lo.
viii
Essas duas partes finais são o Futuro e a Conclusão. A primeira terá as coisas que
não pude fazer e que a próxima pessoa a continuar esse projeto devera focar a pesquisa
sobre esse assunto e a segunda será um composto do resumo de todas as ideias com uma
opinião pessoal sobre o que foi descrito e explicado no documento e a realidade ao redor
de todo o progresso de atualizar e mudar a sociedade brasileira o a região sul americana.
Palavras-Chave: melhor posição, objetivos, metas, estratégias, investimentos, UFRJ,
POLI, DEL, futuro, conclusão.
ix
ABSTRACT
Currently the society is continuously updating and developing to adjust to the big
changes that the future bring us. Especially here in South America where things are very
different to Western Europe or North America. There are uncountable alterations
happening every day and the people has to adjust to it.
For all these named reasons this project is focused on how our technical school
POLI UFRJ and concretely the DEL could improve some of their resources and
qualifications to place themselves on a top position with the best schools nationally and
internationally.
The project contains many objectives and partial goals to be achieved during the
following years and decades. These goals have different strategies associated to them to
approach everything on the best manner.
Along with the suggestions of the diverse plans to put into practice, there is a draft
of how to finance the big main project with different smaller goals and milestones where
there is a differentiation of when to achieve the objectives taking into account the periods
of the timeline of the main project.
There will be a brief part to establish the risks of how to attempt to make all these
changes and update to the school and the department.
Along with these risks, there is also a brief contingency plan to minimize the
critical damage of those risks in case of the possibility things do not go as they are
expected to in first place.
After all these fine steps there have been designed and defined the objectives to
be completed, the strategies to reach those objectives, the necessary investments to carry
out part of these measures and the time duration and schedule for them to happen, the risk
which could occur during the implementation of the project and the contingency plan for
the possible problems taking place throughout the progress of the operation. In order to
x
finalize the document on a correct and formal manner, there will be two more segments
to give the project a nice official seal.
These two last parts are the Future and the Conclusion. First one will contain the
things I have been unable to do and the next person to continue developing a research
about this subject should mainly focus on and the second will be a mixture between a
summary of the whole composition and a personal opinion about what has been described
and explained on the document and the reality surrounding the whole progress of updating
and making changes within the Brazilian society and the South American region.
Key-words: Top position, objectives, goals, strategies, investments, risks, UFRJ, POLI,
DEL, future, conclusion.
xi
SIGLAS
UFRJ – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
DEL – Departamento de Engenharia Eletrônica e de Computação
UPM – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
ETSIT – Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de las Telecomunicaciones
POLI – Escola Politécnica da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
NCE – Núcleo de Tecnología e Computaçao
TIC – Superintendência de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação
xii
Index
1 Introduction 1
1.1 - Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 - Delimitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 - Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 - Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4.1 - General objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4.2 - Specific objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 - Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.6 - Project structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Strategic Plan (PUMA) 6
2.1 - History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 - Business Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 - Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 - Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.5 - Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.6 - Critical factors of Corporative Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.7 - Corporative Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.8 - Objectives, Strategies and Corporative Milestones . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.8.1 - UFRJ (POLI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.8.2 - DEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
xiii
3 Investment Planning 23
3.1 - Project Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1.1 - Period 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.1.2 - Period 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.1.3 - Period 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 - Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 - Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.1 - Period 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.2 - Period 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.3 - Period 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4 Risks 28
4.1 - Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.2 - Typology and classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.3 - UFRJ Project Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5 Prevention & Contingency Plans 32
5.1 - Human Resources issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.2 - Technical issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.3 - Economical issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.4 - Organizational issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.5 - External issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
xiv
6 Future 35
7 Conclusion 37
Bibliography 40
Annex 42
xv
List of Figures
2.1 – Puma v4.0 Sofware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 – Example of current transportation in UFRJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 – Current status of appearance of UFRJ (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4 – Current status of appearance of UFRJ (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5 – Example of current food establishment in UFRJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6 – Recycling containers at DEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.7 – Banner of strike declared at POLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.8 – Current parking status without fences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.9 – Current recreation area at DEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.10 – Screenshot of accessing issue to the DEL main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.11 – Current small computer room of bachelor students at DEL . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
xvi
List of Tables
4.1 – Probability of a risk to occur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2 – Effect of a risk in the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3 – Risks of the UFRJ implementation project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
xvii
1
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 – Topic
This project is situated on a technical-economical perspective, elaboration of
project planning. We start from the study of some of the issues and improvable things
along the UFRJ Compound (POLI) School and campus; and also of the DEL where it is
concretely focused.
Among the technical-economical view, in the composition we are mainly centered
on the strategic and investment approaches. We established our goals by observing and
questioning employees and students of the department and the school in general. Once
the issues have been detected, an strategic plan is to be developed in order to achieve the
objectives which cover those issues and take UFRJ and DEL to a higher level or position,
after the strategy, we need an investment plans to be able to finance all the changes and
new measures needed. Then, we just have to wrap up the new measures to be carried out
establishing risks, a contingency plan and what has to be done and achieve in future works
about this subject.
1.2 – Delimitation
These kind of studied are especially important on a society and a city or country
which are continuously changing. Brazil is still a country under construction in many
aspects, especially security, recycling or technology
Here the government does not provide schools with enough resources to compete
internationally with others institutions in technology, so it is hard to make significant
advances or updates without a full support or great economic funds. That is why putting
these plans into practice in South America are the especial and important interest,
2
although is hard to carry them out successfully for different outside situations we will
discuss throughout the paper.
Besides of being focused on the schools, this kind of strategic planning should be
applied to the majority of companies and businesses which are seeking to grow
internationally. Some of the goals and objectives described for the school have been
adapted from similar processes that were successfully achieved in some universities in
Europe and North America.
1.3 – Justification
The topic that has been presented justifies its existence because there are many
elements in the school or department which could and should be improved on the
following years.
Some of the ideas and suggestions presented on this project would be difficult to
be made a reality any time soon because of politics or the cultural situation but others
could be totally applied and achieve partial goals to reach the greater objective.
Once putting into practice some of the strategies described the results would show
how important is to update the school resources to meet the requirements of the actual
society and the entire world.
1.4 – Objectives
1.4.1 – General objective
This project has the goal to point out some concerns that should be taken care of
in order to become a Top University along with motivating the school to put into practice
some actions mentioned on the work.
3
If the implementation of the project was a reality, the objective would be the
named fact of taking UFRJ to a higher level, especially internationally and making the
DEL one of the best schools within UFRJ (POLI).
1.4.2 – Specific objectives
Suggesting a successful strategic plan.
Preparing a doable investment plan.
Describing the risks of implementing a project of these characteristics.
Developing plans of prevention and contingency to reinforce the strength of the
project.
Proposing guidelines for future studies on the subject.
1.5 – Methodology
How I have already said earlier on this paper, the first step of the processed started
living and experiencing the school which meant attending to some classes, observing the
buildings where the classes take place, visiting the laboratories and computer rooms,
eating on the restaurants of the scholar complex,
The second step was talking to the coordinators, professors and students to figure
their point of view on this subject and the school and the department in general. Things
they thought they were necessary, aspects which could improve, suggestions they have
and stuff they wanted to remediate.
After gathering all this information and opinions we have to set up objectives and
goals to be reached. All these objectives must have a strategy or strategies associated to
be achieved.
Once we know what we have to do and how we have to do it, we need when we
have to carry it out. We must do the time distribution of the objective planning to maintain
and order and respect the priorities. For this purpose the available money to spend at the
4
time is also very important, it would be a sensible subject whether to determinate what to
do first and after.
The last part is assessing all these processes named before to give our project more
strength and conviction and draw a consistent conclusion.
1.6 – Project structure
This research consists in seven chapters well differentiated, where the first one is
the Introduction which is what it is being carried out right now. The goal of this first
chapter is giving the reader an interesting overview of the following parts of the entire
project.
The chapter two contains the Strategy Plan. This plan has been elaborated using
the software PUMA which gave us the structure of eight key points. Most important part
is the end, subchapter eight, where the objectives, temporal goals and strategies of the
plan are described.
In the third chapter we will talk about the Investment Planning, a section of special
interest since it is the continuation of the strategy plan counting with economic funds and
time prospective. In other words, how those objectives can be made a reality and when
will they take place.
In order to give a more extensive background to these two plans, the fourth chapter
is the responsible for describing the Risks which could occur while implementing the new
strategies. It is hard to find a big project that is totally perfect planned, therefor the most
probably issues or complications likely to appear must be pointed out in order to prevent
them from happening.
Also complementing the two plans and risks above, it appears our new chapter
five, the Prevention & Contingency Plans. It is in charge of developing possible solutions
for problems which could arise and plans to prevent any issues from happening.
5
The sixth chapter deals with the Future, which consists on defining what areas
should be explored for the following researches on this subject. It is focused on motivating
the readers to continue these studies and giving them guidelines to make a successful
takeover.
And after these six chapters we reach the seventh, which is the last one, the
Conclusion. This chapter contains a mixture of summary and subjective thoughts about
the whole project. Its final goal is giving a big overview of the composition
complementing internal thoughts of the writer and feelings surrounded for political and
sociological facts.
6
Chapter 2
Strategic Plan
This chapter contains a serial of eight fields established by the Grumbach Method
to determinate the best manner of how to approach a strategic plan to reach a succession
of objectives.
The Grumbach Method was applied by generating these eight fields using the
software Puma developed by the Brazilian consulting company named Brainstorming,
Asesoria de Planejamento e Informática.
Figure 2.1: Puma v.4.0 Software.
Most key part of this sections will be the last segment (2.8) which sets the
objectives desired to be achieved and how they could be reached suggesting different
strategies.
2.1 – History
This section includes a brief list of historical events to have an overview of the
roots of the school for upcoming segments and chapters.
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) was created the 7th of September
of 1920 with the name of University of Rio de Janeiro. In 1937 was reorganized and
changed the name to University of Brazil. There was one last modification and its current
name was acquired in 1965, “Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro” [5].
Its implementation did not follow an organic process and resulted in the
organization of equal entities meeting the demands of the Brazilian society. It was a
7
political act and a juxtaposition of higher education institutions which already existed:
School of Medicine, Polytechnic School and Law School, being the last one the result of
the union of another two schools [5].
As we have just seen UFRJ exists after the Polytechnic School (POLI), the first
origin of POLI dates from 1792 with the name of Royal Academy of Artillery,
Fortification and Design. Later, on December 1810, the Prince Regent, King John VI,
signed a law creating the Royal Military Academy which replaced the one created in 1972
and it is where it descends the famous Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro which took
the name of National School of Engineering to become The Polytechnic School of UFRJ,
POLI a short period of time after [6].
The DEL was born same year the name UFRJ was acquired by the school, 1965,
it is its 50th anniversary. In order to speak of the history of the DEL, we should talk about
the important events of technology which happened after it. First computer, which was
huge, was installed and located at NCE, they also maintained the network until TIC took
over and they are currently in charge of the network distribution and issues.
The computer operative system in the school started with NOVELL, followed by
WINDOWS 3.1, WINDOWS 8.11, WINDOWS 97 and the current system, LINUX.
LINUX have been used by UFRJ students since year 1997, year where the program of the
school changed and was and still is directed by Carlos José Ribas D'Avila.
Internet was installed between the years 1994 and 1995. Other important events
were the Motorola Project in 1998, O Globo Project in 2005 and the Pan-American
Games in 2008, computers were donated to the department after them. Wi-Fi first arrived
to the DEL in 2011 but it has not been until this year 2015 when it started to work
properly.
8
2.2 – Business Model
The definition of business model is “The plan implemented by a company to
generate revenue and make a profit from operations. The model includes the components
and functions of the business, as well as the revenues it generates and the expenses it
incurs” [3].
In our particular case we are dealing with a school and a department from that
school and the profit is not particularly what is sought here, at least the countable part of
profit, the money. Although once other objectives non-countable meet, the money will
also increase.
The business idea of UFRJ and DEL is teaching and educating students the most
important engineering concepts to help them develop their skills for the future. These
students will take important roles in different jobs which will result in a bigger
development of the society.
In addition of giving them academic knowledge, the biggest goal nowadays is also
giving them the chance to acquire technical training in laboratories or special rooms
dedicated for topics related to experiences of the real world. Real life experiences before
leaving university will provide them with a better preparation to meet the requirements
of future jobs.
2.3 – Mission
The purpose that justifies the existence of the Electronic Department among
Polytechnic School of UFRJ consists in providing the Brazilian society the means to
dominate, cultivate and spread The Universal Patrimony of the Human Being, giving
qualification to all its members and acting as a transforming force. The school completes
the education of the alumni preparing them for [2]:
9
- Developing jobs in important companies.
- Valuing the multiple ways of knowledge and expression, technical and scientific,
artistic and cultural.
- Being a good citizen.
- Giving a critical opinion of the society that we live in.
- Participating on the effort of overcome the social inequalities
- Assuming the compromise to build a socially fair society, environmentally
responsible, respectful of the diversity and the different free ways of expression
or discrimination of any kind.
- Fighting for the universalization of the civic responsibility and for the democracy.
- Contributing for a national and international solidarity.
2.4 – Vision
Train professionals on the field of expertise of Electrical and Computer Science
Engineering to take them to the top international excellence level.
Generate scientific and technological knowledge in the school involving the
students being part of the education system, leading the students’ mobility among other
countries and teachers with the best national and international schools [4].
To be a great reference as a Technical School internationally as a result of teaching
and researching activities and projects.
Encouraging and putting into practice an important researching program, growth
and innovation, according to the most advanced level in every moment.
To be a pioneer school in topics related with development and educative
innovation.
10
Provide professionals with an integer education including social, economic and
technical aspects, qualifying them for the leadership and management of important
projects and to develop an entrepreneur and innovative spirit.
Contribute with the Public Administrations to the necessary evolution in every
potential moment of the professional profile of the Electronic and Computer Engineering
field, being on permanent contact with companies and professional associations, seeking
the greatest integration with the business and social reality of the educated professionals.
2.5 – Values
- The main values of the department are:
Teamwork.
Ethics.
Leadership.
Transparency and honesty.
Compromise.
Effort and perseverance.
Integrity.
Creativity and ingenuity.
Critical thinking.
Experience.
Adaptation capacity and evolution.
Accurate analysis.
Professionalism of the human resources.
Vocation of society service.
Innovation character.
Valuation of the people.
Administrative probity.
Search of quality and improvements.
Equity of opportunities.
11
2.6 – Critical factors of Corporative Success
This segment is especially important in a country like Brazil where launching new
projects do not have the best prospective to success as a result of political and social
matters.
The most important factor for the development of our project is the critical
situation of the economy in the country since it is getting to a state of recession after being
one of the most profitable of South America.
Another very influential element is the politics. There is a huge political tension
between the citizens and the current president of the country, Dilma Rousseff. Here in Rio
there were big protests making noise from the private citizen´s houses every time she
spoke on TV.
Along with these two big issues there is also a big problem which the Brazilian
government is failing to solve, the safety or better called the insecurity of Brazil in general
and of Rio de Janeiro in particular. Students often need to bring their computers and rest
of equipment to the school but many of them have second thoughts of whether to bring
them or not for the possibility of being assaulted on their way to school. Lately there have
been several assaults in at least three different Bus Lines and some other on the campus.
This situation scares many students to join the school in UFRJ and make them choose
other schools or campuses closer to the city.
Also, taking into account that money is one of the most important factors on a
strategy plan as the one it is meant to be described, it is needed to mention how the value
of the Brazilian coin keeps changing due to the economy and the events Brazil is hosting
as the previous Football World Cup or the upcoming Olympics Games of 2016. Every
time there is an event or seasons like summer, the Real increases its value and the prices
of everything raises unmeasurable but after they pass the Real falls down and the prices
are still high. This fact is upsetting for long time projects.
12
And last one is the number of strikes raised by students and university workers
lately. The school is in constant alert status with continuous meetings to decide when to
go ahead with the strikes or not.
2.7 – Corporative Policies
In order to improve the school, significant changes must be made. In this section
we are going to mention some corporative policies the school has to adopt to reach its
purpose.
Beginning with these actions is extremely necessary to establish relationships with
companies to send students to the market and receive investments for the department to
buy new equipment and build new classrooms and laboratory rooms in exchange for
adding top students to their internship or research vacancies.
Preparing restrictive contracts with providers of electronic equipment, this would
be very important for the fact of getting discounts for buying a great quantity of goods.
Signing an agreement with an official provider will make the transition of purchasing new
equipment much easier, having an exclusive deal will make a difference while needing to
upgrade and purchase a lot of technical equipment.
Developing a web forum for students and companies to post job offers and send
applications and resumes by the students. It is a great way to interact directly between
students and private companies at present.
Creating a specific finance department to manage all the issues related to the
distribution and usage money and all the accounting needed for the different requests of
the departmental areas.
Launching recycling campaigns in order to become an example to the Brazilian
society. Youth is the key to the future and we show that the youngest know how to recycle
and be careful with our nature, everyone else will be concerned and follow the idea. Our
school has certain recycling containers but the school should promote campaigns to
13
encourage students to use them and increase the amount of containers. Also motivating
different businesses or private buildings to learn from the public schools.
2.8 – Objectives, Strategies and Corporative Milestones
The main goal for the UFRJ/DEL is to position itself as a great school as a national
and international reference and solving the problems which are not avoiding that goal to
be realistic nowadays. This is a common objective for both of them and most of the
schools in general.
Very related to this main objective is the need of increasing the financial aid.
Raising more money is a priority taking into account that the national or state
governments do not provide enough resources to make significant changes. This could be
considered as a strategy to achieve the main goal or just as another objective, a big
priority.
Now, taking into account the importance of the financial situation, we are going
to mention different objectives to be reached by the polytechnic school (UFRJ Escola
Politecnica) itself and the Department of Electronic (DEL) being the main focus.
2.8.1 – UFRJ (POLI):
The school is located on the island of Fundão, a location which is far for the
majority of the attendance. Despite of the amount of buses which go to the island of
Fundão, it should be considered another optional type of system of transportation
provided for the school which will also be more secure and fast that the regular bus
system. The current buses are extremely full, their drivers are temerarious and there is a
big lack of security.
A strategy should be launching private vans or buses from the areas with the
biggest amounts of students where students must show their ID in order to get on board.
A survey must be made and propose stops for these new ways of transportation being
consequent with the results of the survey.
14
Related to this topic, another big objective must be increasing the security. UFRJ
is located in not a very safe neighborhood. Assaults take place very often as the criminals
know that there are students and have cellphones, computer, etc… We will talk about the
measures for safety at the end of this segment.
Figure 2.2: Example of current transportation in UFRJ.
Another important matter is the school´s appearance. The current appearance
looks really old and wore away. An influent and respected school like the UFRJ cannot
permit that fact if it wants to become an international reference. Investing on the physical
appearance of the school might not be a priority but it is really important in order to
receive great amount of international students every semester. A multicultural school is
the key for innovation and development.
A strategy to achieve part of this goal and save some expenses could be using
students of civil or industrial engineering to get some kind of school credits helping on
this matter. Also the fact of employing other students from other schools of UFRJ
(Fundão) as the school of Interior Design or the school of Architecture, both of them very
close to CT (Technologic Center).
15
Figures 2.3 & 2.4: Current status of the appearance of UFRJ.
Another great update would be improving and increasing the establishments of
food around the campus. Students often claim that the food offered is not very good and
there are huge lines to order it. And taking into account that most of them have to continue
their classes after the break, it is a big problem for them.
The strategy to be approach will be bringing famous chains of food to the campus,
at least 4 or 5 to broaden the possibilities of the students. It will be interesting if they
include the chance of car pick up in case the students are going to work or home after.
Also the bandejão should be more organized and avoid lines of 40 plus minutes,
building another bandejão with a different option of foods will be awesome.
Including options for vegetarian and vegan is also an awesome idea, so everyone can have
an option they like.
Figure 2.5: Example of current food establishment in UFRJ.
16
Another sought objective is to potentiate collaborating with the Brazilian society
and being an example to have a good influence on the society, especially in the youth
which is the key of the development.
The strategies proposed for this matter are launching varied programs to motivate
students to:
- Recycle: As it was said earlier, UFRJ has several recycling containers but not
enough to cover the extension of the entire complex and only on certain buildings
and floors.
- Foment tolerance between students and rest of civilians: Brazil is a big country
with strong religious beliefs but also where the sexual diversity is very wide and
spread out.
- Collaborate with the most needy: there are certain programs such as TETO which
provide Favelas with people to work some days helping them to build or repair
part of their homes. UFRJ could launch similar program with slightly different
alternatives.
Figure 2.6: Recycling containers at DEL
A matter that is happening recently and it was also named as a critical factor is the
rise of strikes. There is a big tension between school workers and the directors which
caused the strike by part of the faculty.
17
A strategy which could resolve this should be making contracts more strict and
forbid the possibility of stop working with the result of being expelled in case of not
respecting it. There are legal issues attached to this matter and there should be discussed
with the faculty beforehand.
Figure 2.7: Banner of strike declared at POLI.
And the last but not least important, the means for security on campus should
increase as it was commented on top of the segment. There are some guards especially
protecting the bank branch offices but they are not too focused on giving the students
enough protection.
A strategy could be contracting a private security company assisted by the Rio de
Janeiro State Government since the safety of the students must be led for the government.
Also, the security on the parking and classes should increase. There should be a
fence built to increase the protection. In addition the cars must have a plate registered on
the electronic system of the school with some information that they owner (student) is the
only person who knows. That way the plate will be read by the parking officer and he/she
will ask some security questions to let the driver access to the parking. In the same way,
the students ID must have a digital firm so they could access to different laboratories or
computer areas even when the teachers or assistants are not there.
18
Figure 2.8: Current parking status without fences.
2.8.2 – DEL:
As we have mentioned above the main objective is to position the DEL as a top
school nationally and internationally and solve some issues which need closure in order
to seek for progress. For the fact of reaching this goal, collecting money is very important
and necessary. It is the key to make notable changes to update and improve the current
department.
If we establish increasing the economic funds as the top priority, taking into
account that is the tool to make notorious changes and increase the attraction to attend the
DEL, our strategies should be focused mainly on this matter.
The main strategy is signing agreements with private global and national
companies which will invest on the department in exchange for a mutual collaboration.
The DEL will host public master classes of employees and representatives of these
companies to try to get the attention of the students and give them a global overview to
the real world and what it would be to work for them and how that will suppose a good
industrial experience.
DEL will send their top students to complete internships at these companies within
Brazil or the rest of the world to broaden their fields of expertise.
As the DEL does not get enough money from the school or government, a good
idea would be creating extra-scholar activities or classes for the people who require it,
19
such as language classes or exercises classes to give more support to students with some
difficulties, all of these courses would be cheaper than in any other private institution
outside the school.
Another important task to be completed is increasing the amount of students in
the department. In order to call the attention of important worldwide companies it is a
necessary request recruit more students.
A strategy to make this a reality will consist in making our school more attractive
to the students and also to the professors. We are going to mention some measures to be
carried out.
The need to diversify the courses offered and giving the opportunity of studying
the different majors in other languages will result as a greater interest for Brazilian and
international students.
The other language option which has been named before would be mainly English
although the possibility of Spanish is always helpful and interesting for the proximity to
many countries where Spanish is their official first language.
Also increasing the amount of recreation areas on the building such as study
areas, food areas or socializing areas. This will motivate the students to make stronger
relationships with their classmates and not seeing the school as a place they have to leave
on a rush right after finishing their classes.
Figure 2.9: Current recreation area at DEL.
20
There is another big goal and need which is fixing and improving the WIFI
network and the website appearance. It is hard to believe that the Department of electronic
and computer engineering does not have a proper network. Also the website has a lot to
improve, as an example the figure 2.11 which shows the first message seen once it is
accessed.
A group of students of the DEL could have this goal as a final project and work
closely with one or two professors. It would be the perfect strategy to reach the objectives
spoken of in this research.
Figure 2.10: Screenshot of accessing issue to the DEL main page.
Another big objective sought vigorously by the teachers is the enlargement of the
department. In order to grow as a school, the scholar resources must greatly increase.
The chosen strategy is building new spaces for the students as in new laboratory
rooms, computer rooms and teaching classrooms. Also updating the rooms already
dedicated to educate the students could be part of this measure. Buying new projectors
for the classes and chairs and tables would be better to keep their attention.
21
Figure 2.11: Current small computer room of bachelor students at DEL
Another complementary goal is increasing the focus of the students on the outside
world, the working and continuously updating reality.
The strategies meant for this goal are getting the students more involved on
seeking for jobs and internships along with showing them how to deal with real problems
in practical activities.
One idea to put into practice is developing a web forum for companies to seek
new interns or for students to look for new jobs as it was discussed earlier in this research.
Another is hiring part time teachers who have also other different kind of jobs and could
use that knowledge to show students the things they might have to be doing after they are
done studying.
Focusing on the exterior the other big objective is the Internationalization of the
Department. In the world we live today teaching classes in different languages, hire
foreigner teachers.
We talked about the classes in different languages before, but also adding teachers
from other countries will give another perspective to the students. Motivating them to do
an exchange semester or year will help them to outcome possible difficulties that they
will have in the future. The experiences of living abroad make everyone grow in many
aspects and the knowledge acquired is more valuable than just sitting on a classroom.
Another goal that I personally think that must be achieved is improving the
organization of the DEL. Structurally is not being well organized and sometimes is
22
difficult to reach or find teachers. Also, the economic resources must be better handled in
order to make progresses and updates.
Having a more organized department and especially the management of the funds
is very important to carry on all the strategies that we have been talking about during the
analysis.
For this goal the best approach possible is creating a Department inside the DEL
to manage different matters, but especially the economic funds. It will be named as the
“Finance Office”.
This office within the DEL will be very necessary to organize and distribute the
funds raised by the private donations and governmental institutions as well as money
raised by those extra-scholar activities that we mentioned almost on top of this segment
to earn more money.
For the last part there is an idea of a goal taken from some schools in Europe
which is Creating advanced classes focused on highly qualified students, a school of
excellence.
These students will be the best representatives of our school and they will also
have a good retribution as studying for free without any fees. Putting into practice some
school competitions will help to determinate the students who should join this group and
make a difference of the future for the department and the school.
23
Chapter 3
Investment Planning
This chapter covers the aspects of implementing different initiatives explained on
the section 2.8.
It is composed of three differentiate parts. One sets the duration of our project and
its justification, another explains the money needed and how it would be spent and the
last and most determining one consists in the distribution of objectives and goals for every
period.
3.1 – Project Duration
In a big scheme resembling the one we are designing the milestones and time
dedicated for each task are very important. In order for a plan to success those times
should be respected and prepare carefully taking into account unexpected issues which
could occur throughout the process.
For those reasons we considered that the best distribution will be three period of
different durations, giving more time to the second period, the one in the middle because
that would be the most difficult and extended part of the implementation of the strategies.
This is the time schedule distribution estimated for the project:
tT = t1 + t2 + t3 = 15 years. Total duration.
t1 = 3 years (0-3). Duration of period 1.
t2 = 7 years (3-10). Duration of period 2.
t3 = 5 years (10-15). Duration of period 3.
24
Now we will describe a brief justification of the length requested for every period
and a short idea of what we want to achieve them. Also it would describe some changes
of the physical appearance of the DEL. There will be more details of the objectives
desired to be reached in every period further on the document.
3.1.1 - Period 1:
This term is the shortest because it is mainly to organize the financial funds and
plan the strategies. While starting a new big project there must be a distributional period
which will be followed with a more operational one.
During period one we will realize changes in the building H, the building
dedicated for Electronic Engineering until now, the building will increase the capacity in
a 20% and it will be called H1. It will be divided in 2 parts, academic area (H11) and
technical area (H12), both areas with the same physical space which will help the
department (DEL) to be more focus in practical activities for the real world.
3.1.2 - Period 2:
The second period is the longest one and it will consist on carrying out all the
major actions.
This is the most influent part of the project, as an example and the same way it
has been done in the section 3.1.3, it is sought to build a twin building to increase the
amount of students in a 100% by the end of the following 7 years. The building will be
called H2 with an academic area (H21) and another technical area (H22).
More in detail, all four areas will have the same size and building H1 will be used
for the most technical sub-degrees among Electronic Engineering and building H2 for
areas related to electronic management and business wise among technical application,
Digitalization.
25
3.1.3 - Period 3:
This last period will last five years. The reason of the duration is that it is in charge
of supervising and maintaining the recent changes and it will also have extra time
available in case goals from the past period were not successfully reached.
3.2 – Investments:
The goal of this part it is to describe all topics related the amount of money needed
to develop our expansion project and the income we will receive to achieve our objectives.
- The variables used are:
A = initial outlay;
ci = cost per year (i = 1….15);
ii = income per year (i = 1….15);
Qi = ii - ci = income minus cost per year = cash flow;
For our business plan we need to estimate the values our variables will have. We
will suppose that the income and cost per year is constant, as it will result of a constant
cash flow. Actually our income and cost will always vary but our cash flow needs to
remain the same, for that reason we will set those two values as constant to simplify the
calculations.
- The values are:
A = 500.000 R$.
ci = 80.000 R$.
ii = 120.000 R$.
Qi = 40.000 R$.
B = Total benefit after the termination of the project (Calculated beyond).
According to this, at the end of the 15 years we will have:
26
B = - A + ∑Q i (i =1….15) = -500.000 + 40.000·15 = 100.000 R$.
This benefit will be part of the initial outlay for the next project of expansion or
renovation.
The different amounts of money are just an estimation without taking into account
the political or economic situations during those years.
3.3 – Objectives:
In this section we are going to speak more detailed about the goals we want to
achieve throughout the three periods.
We have already talk about the changes for the physical appearance of the
department and the distributions of the new areas and the functions they will have, now
we will focus in different aspects, more specific.
3.3.1 - Period 1:
Planning the distribution and timeline for the entire project.
Signing agreements with private companies to receive investments for the
department (DEL).
Signing an agreement with a supplier/suppliers to provide all electronic devices
of the same brand if they have it.
Changing the physical appearance of H Building (adding laboratory and computer
rooms), becoming H1 [Section 3.1.1].
Creation of the Finance Department.
Improving Wi-Fi network and DEL website.
Finding a legal measure to avoid strikes.
27
3.3.2 - Period 2:
Renovation of UFRJ (POLI) appearance.
Starting campaigns to promote recycling among students and rest of the school
workers.
Construction of twin building of the DEL, H2. [Section 3.1.2].
Contracting teachers with work outside university background, partial time
teachers.
Increasing the amount of total time teachers and students.
Continuing signing contracts with private companies to increase the department
(DEL) funds.
Creation of more recreation and food areas.
Building the fences for the parking and increasing the security means.
Improving the transportation to reach Fundão.
3.3.3 - Period 3:
Supervision and maintenance of new changes. [Section 3.1.3].
Finishing incomplete objectives. [Section 3.1.3].
Internationalization of the department.
Creation of a high qualified student´s class.
Launching collaboration and tolerance campaigns.
Redistribution of the benefits obtained if any.
28
Chapter 4
Risks
Once implementing a big project, unexpected events could appear all the time and
that would make us deliver late or deliver something which does not fulfill the
requirements agreed. The responsible people of the project must consider all these facts
in order to complete their end of the deal or contract.
In this section we are going to identify and analyze the possible problems which
could occur during the development of the project and after the changes or improvements
have been finalized.
4.1 – Definition:
Risk is the measure of the probability and consequence of not reaching the goal of
the project.
Our personal goal is trying to minimize the consequences of unfavorable events
and maximize the consequences of the favorable events.
Not every risk has the same impact, therefore the exposition to the risk measures
the effect of a risk on a determinate moment taking into account the probability of
occurring in that exact moment. This explanation is the result of the following formula,
exposition is equal to probability multiplied by the effect:
EX (RI, t) = Pr (occurrence, t) x Effect (t);
There is also another thing which must be taken into account which is the fact the
Effect has a lot of importance and it is defined as follows with the causes that originate it:
Effect = F (costs, delays, losses, t);
29
Once all these concepts are clear and clarified, the risks would be divided in
external and internal and also different classifications motivated for the causes that create
them.
4.2 – Typology and classes:
There are many different classifications for risks since their origin could be
anywhere. In this document we are going to be focused in five but there could also be
others:
Human Resources: This risk is actually the most common to happen. Every
project or job have issues with their employees. Sickness, quitting the job,
showing up late, not doing a proper job…are some of the cases related to this risk.
Technical: Once implementing a solution related with technology improvements
or updates could always ending having a technical issue. We have to be especially
careful with this fact in order to expand our project making assurances every time
a milestone is achieve in order to make sure everything is working perfectly until
then.
Economical: The funds designated to cover the costs of the project are very well
calculated but sometimes unexpected events happen and the money is insufficient
and the plans could fail. All those risks related to this fact would be contained on
this type.
Organizational: in every company or business their departmental structure is very
important and the communication between the members of any kind of rank is
delicate and must be fluent. Sometimes there are problems organizing parts of the
project or transmitting the ideas from one side to another, those will be the
organizational risks.
30
External: last but not less important are the external risks which are all those
problems which cannot be controlled as a weather disaster, intense rains, etc. A
matter to be highly considered since we are under tropical weather or just
situations outside our circle of influence as facts related with customers, in this
case students.
4.3 – UFRJ Project Risks:
In this section and after the explanation of risk and the types used for our
document, we are going to talk about the ones belonging to this particular project and
how they are waged taking into account the exposition and effect explain on the point 4.1.
This auxiliary tables will help to understand the values assigned to the risks which
will be commented afterwards:
Table 4.1: Probability of a risk to occur.
Probability 0-100 % Value
Very low 0-5% 1
Low 5-15% 2
Medium 15-35% 3
High 35-50% 4
Very high 50-100% 5
Table 4.2: Effect of a risk in the project.
Effect Value
Very low 1
Low 2
Medium 3
High 4
Very high 5
31
And this is the legend to explain the abbreviations to be used after and increase
its simplicity:
Probability = P, Effect = Ef, Exposition = Ex, T=Type (Human Resources = 1,
Technical = 2, Economical = 3, Organizational = 4, External = 5).
Table 4.3: Risks of the UFRJ implementation project.
RISK T P Ef Ex
Lack of implication of the employees 1 2 4 8
Strikes of the workers 1 2 5 10
Insufficient personnel available 1 1 3 3
Personnel accidents 1 1 4 4
Lack of teamwork 1 2 4 8
Obsolete working material 2 4 3 12
Implementation difficulties 2 3 3 9
Prices raise of subcontract companies 3 2 3 6
Lack of monetary funds 3 3 5 15
Failure of the business case 3 2 3 6
Lack of support for the directors 4 2 4 8
Organizational Model inadequate 4 2 3 6
Low demand of the new services 5 3 3 9
Strikes of students 5 2 4 8
Weather disasters 5 1 5 5
Low participation on new initiatives (Ex. Recycling) 5 3 3 9
As a final observation it can be seen that the three biggest risks are the insufficient
money (1), working with old tools or updating really old equipment (2) and the strikes of
the workers (3).
32
Chapter 5
Prevention & Contingency Plans
Once the risks have been identified, every well prepared project needs varied
strategies and solutions to avoid these mentioned risks to arise or solve them when
inevitably happen.
We have discussed risks and issues in a general manner in the previous chapter
but now we will address the cases more in detail and suggest different solutions for them
but all on an abridged manner. We will distribute the plans with the same division as the
type of risks in Chapter 4.
5.1 – Human Resources issues:
This section is mainly based on strikes, loss of teachers because of taking job
positions in other institutions or accidents.
As it was said before, there must be strict contract with teachers and workers as a
prevention to avoid strikes. Also, if the students are working on reforming the school,
there has to be with a supervisor all the time. As a contingency plan, having a list of
possible replacements and prepare medical equipment on campus.
5.2 – Technical issues:
For this case we will consider troubles with the network, Wi-Fi and LAN and also
communications such as 3G/4G mobile networks.
The best prevention is monitor the network and the contingency solution would
be having a subcontract warned about any possible network drop.
33
5.3 – Economical issues:
As it has been mentioned along the document, money is the key for financing a
project. The main issues considered are poor planning of the funds required and a big
raise of the prices by subcontract companies or providers.
The prevention plan is having a good business case and reserve a saving fund for
unpredictable events. The contingency plan will be raising more money, asking for a bank
credit.
5.4 – Organizational issues:
The main problem here is the communication between the directors and the rest
of the team such as requirements not completed by the workers or initiatives not approved
by the chiefs. Also pure planning by the director not establishing roles accurate for all
his/her team.
The prevention plan is having a well prepared Organization Model and define the
roles properly, having more than one person for every chore. As a contingency measure
would be hiring another person besides the director to supervise the project in each
milestone.
5.5 – External issues:
In this last part the focus will be natural disasters such as heavy tropical rains and
lack of interest of students. As its own meaning has, the external fact is something which
we can hardly control.
The prevention plan for the natural disaster is reinforcing the platform of the
school to secure the buildings against strong winds and rains. The contingency plan is
prepare the students giving them some knowledge about what they to do when it takes
place.
34
For the lack of interest on the new classes, the school must motivate the students
beforehand, the contingency plan will be cancelling the classes and starting new ones.
35
Chapter 6
Future
The objective of this chapter is proposing suggestions and guidelines for
forthcoming studies on this subject or similar researches. It would serve as the starting
point of prospective strategy projects for our school or perhaps other types of businesses.
Taking into account the area covered by the research the most valid options for
the continuation would be focusing on a concrete area of innovations, taking the project
to the next step or finding more legitimate ways to increase the funds. These three
possibilities will be better explained on the following paragraphs.
First, the focus should only remain on the DEL, choosing the priority measures
and carry them out. Once that is achieved, the same should be done with the every other
department composing POLI and then, it is when updating general concepts of POLI
everything will be completed.
Second, as we already made the suggestions and defined the necessary
approaches, next step would be choosing some of those goals and be a participant of
making a reality, such as working on the DEL website or collaborating on the renovation
of the school.
And third, as we have discussed the importance of money, another possible
research would have as a main objective making a business case to prepare the department
to confront an issue, study the different approaches and finding the resources (money) to
make it a reality. It would be getting a suggestion and carry it out until the end developing
a real viable plan.
On another hand and besides these three ways, meeting between the directors of
the school, the coordinator of every department and some teachers should be held every
couple of months to brainstorm ideas and share concerns.
36
Also there must be organized meetings between the director of the school and
members of the government to discuss the grants to be conceded every semester.
To finalize this chapter, it must be said that many of the objectives proposed
throughout the project are very hard to achieve in the actual reality, therefore the perfect
future work would be trying to make all those objectives a real possibility within the next
coming lustrums.
37
Chapter 7
Conclusions
Finally we reached our last chapter. It contains a summary of the entire a project
with a touch of personal opinion connecting objectives sought by the project which were
achieved and others that did not.
Now at this point, as an overview of this project, we could see how we went
through starting from a study of the situation and characteristics of the school, pointed
the failures or issues that we have, what we wanted to become and desired objectives and
the means to reach them and make it a reality (strategies).
Once we had all those facts mentioned above, we designed a plan to distribute and
finance all the actions that needed to be taken and were able to be done. In order to
complement this distributions, we established the risks our project could or will have and
plans to minimize the impact.
Seeing this, the main objective of this research was suggesting viable solutions
for the school and department to become the best on their field. Considered the many
proposals suggested and how to approach them, I think this goal has been successfully
achieved since there were many ideas proposed to make updates and improvements to the
current school.
Contrasting what it was just said, the reality is that most of those objectives will
not be able to be achieved in a long time due to the next status of recession that the country
is living now, the political tension and the difficulty to receive donations and grants from
the private and governmental organizations.
Talking to teachers and student the impression is that everyone knows what we
need and what needs to be done but the resources to see it through are really hard to get
nowadays.
38
Besides the difficulty of putting every plan into practice, the ones which are
doable must be selected and be started as soon as possible to avoid getting behind other
institutions better prepared. It cannot be accepted the school having meetings every month
to discuss if there will be a strike or not or a department of computer studies with no
computers for the students or a deficient Wi-Fi network.
To finish on a good note I leave a quote of one of my favorite books “Mistakes
can usually be corrected later; the time that is lost in not making a decision can never be
retrieved” [1]. Which just means that the best approach is confronting the issues as soon
as they are detected and keep growing.
39
40
Bibliography
[1] CARLZON, J., Moments of Truth, Sweden, 1987.
[2] ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS DE INDUSTRIALES (UPM)
“ Misión y Valores ETSII”, http://www.industriales.upm.es//, 2015, (Accessed June 20th
of 2015).
[3] INVESTOPEDIA, LLC., “Dictionary”, http://www.investopedia.com/ , 2015,
(Accessed June 20th of 2015).
[4] ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS DE TELECOMUNICACION
(UPM) “Información complementaria”, http://etsit.upm.es/index.php/, 2015, (Accessed
June 20th of 2015).
[5] UNIVERSIDAD FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO, “A UFRJ – História”,
http://www.ufrj.br/, 2015, (Accessed June 20th of 2015).
[6] ESCOLA POLITÉCNICA DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE
JANEIRO, “História da Escola Politécnica”, http://www.poli.ufrj.br/, 2015, (Accessed
June 20th of 2015).
41
42
Annex
This part of the project contains interviews made to teachers and students to
collect opinions and ideas for the research. Their comments were very useful and the key
to this study.
Note : There were more interviews which were made in person and there are not attached
to this document. Languages used for the interviews were: Portuguese, Spanish and
English.
A. Interview 1:
1.Nombre completo:
-Rafael Zambrano López
2.Estudios realizados en el departamento de electrónica:
-Master en Ingenieria Eléctrica (PEE/COPPE). Curso de intercambio (graduación) 2012-
2013 y Proyecto de graduación 2014.
3.Años estudiados en el DEL:
-Dos años.
4.Opinión personal sobre el funcionamiento del departamento:
-Un departamento con excelentes profesores muy bien formados, con cursos de
graduación y pos-graduación bien estructurados, buen sistema de enseñanza y
colaboraciones directas con grandes empresas. Las instalaciones e infraestructuras
podrían mejorarse.
5.¿Cuál es el problema o problemas que usted a observado en el DEL o en la escuela en
general?
-Falta de redes Wi-Fi, salas de estudio, la limpieza podría mejorar, atendimiento precario
en secretaría.
43
6. Alguna sugerencia para resolver dichos problemas si tiene:
-Instalación de redes Wi-Fi, contratar más personal administrativo y de limpieza.
B. Interview 2:
1.Full name:
-Sergio Palma da Justa Medeiros.
2.Job position at UFRJ:
-Professor Associado II.
3.Years and UFRJ and years at the DEL:
-35 years and 35 years.
4.Overall opinion about how the department works:
-The Department has two kind of teaching:
-One is for creating Engineers for the Market, with a focus on subjects that are being used
in our industry and services. These professors tend to be the ones that make projects in
civil society and are always trying to adjust their courses to up to date technologies used
by the market.
-The other category are the ones that prepare students for the academic world. These
normally have projects in the University and do not have interest in researches outside
of the academic space. Some teachers shift from one class to the other (rarer).
5.Which problem or problems have you observed in the department and the school in
general?
-The absence of teachers that are part time. Almost 100% of the teachers have full
occupation in the University. The new teachers that arrive have this characteristic.
6.Suggestions if you have any to solve them:
-Make new contracts with teachers part time and can even be in finite time.
44
C. Interview 3:
1.Full name:
-Helena Motta.
2.Studies done at UFRJ:
-Industrial Design.
3.Years and UFRJ and years at the DEL:
-Four years at UFRJ.
4.Overall opinion about how the department works:
-The departments and school in general should be more organized.
5.Which problem or problems have you observed in the department and the school in
general?
-The biggest disadvantage was choosing the subjects. Not enough room for everyone.
6.Suggestions if you have any to solve them:
-Improve the communications between, school personnel, teachers and students.
D. Interview 4:
1.Full name:
-Paulo Sergio Ramirez Diniz.
2.Job position at UFRJ:
-Professor Titular.
3.Years and UFRJ and years at the DEL:
-35 years.
4.Overall opinion about how the department works:
-It works well given the limited financial and management supports.
45
5.Which problem or problems have you observed in the department and the school in
general?
-Given the quality of its students, more investments in the laboratories would benefit
everyone.
6.Suggestions if you have any to solve them:
-There should be an increase of investment in the facilities for the students.
E. Interview 5:
1. Nome:
-Carlos José Ribas d´Ávila.
2. Cargo na UFRJ:
-Coordenador de Curso.
3. Anos trabalhados na UFRJ e anos trabalhados no DEL:
-São os mesmos, trabalho desde 1979 na UFRJ e no DEL (36 anos).
4. Opinião pessoal do departamento:
-Curso com estrutura curricular com forte base matemática e generalista, do ponto de
vista tecnológico.
Corpo docente com elevada produção científica e qualificação profissional.
-Infra estrutura de salas de aulas adequada às necessidades do curso.
5. Quais são problemas mais importantes que você tem observado no departamento e na
-Escola em geral: Número insuficiente de computadores, falta de uma rede eficiente de
Wi-Fi, Internet de alta velocidade, estrutura para vídeo-conferências, laboratórios para
áreas específicas, tais como, robótica, telefonia celular, eletrônica embarcada
(microcontroladores), ...
6. Sugestões (se tiver) para resolvê-las:
-Investimentos, porém cada vez mais difíceis nos dias de hoje.
46
47
Annex
This part of the project contains interviews made to teachers and students to
collect opinions and ideas for the research. Their comments were very useful and the key
to this study.
Note : There were more interviews which were made in person and there are not attached
to this document. Languages used for the interviews were: Portuguese, Spanish and
English.
A. Interview 1:
1.Nombre completo:
-Rafael Zambrano López
2.Estudios realizados en el departamento de electrónica:
-Máster en Ingeniería Eléctrica (PEE/COPPE). Curso de intercambio (graduación)
2012-2013 y Proyecto de graduación 2014.
3.Años estudiados en el DEL:
-Dos años.
4.Opinión personal sobre el funcionamiento del departamento:
-Un departamento con excelentes profesores muy bien formados, con cursos de
graduación y pos-graduación bien estructurados, buen sistema de enseñanza y
colaboraciones directas con grandes empresas. Las instalaciones e infraestructuras
podrían mejorarse.
5.¿Cuál es el problema o problemas que usted a observado en el DEL o en la escuela en
general?
-Falta de redes Wi-Fi, salas de estudio, la limpieza podría mejorar, atendimiento
precario en secretaría.
48
6. Alguna sugerencia para resolver dichos problemas si tiene:
-Instalación de redes Wi-Fi, contratar más personal administrativo y de limpieza.
B. Interview 2:
1.Full name:
-Sergio Palma da Justa Medeiros.
2.Job position at UFRJ:
-Professor Associado II.
3.Years and UFRJ and years at the DEL:
-35 years and 35 years.
4.Overall opinion about how the department works:
-The Department has two kind of teaching:
-One is for creating Engineers for the Market, with a focus on subjects that are being
used in our industry and services. These professors tend to be the ones that make projects
in civil society and are always trying to adjust their courses to up to date technologies
used by the market.
-The other category are the ones that prepare students for the academic world. These
normally have projects in the University and do not have interest in researches outside
of the academic space. Some teachers shift from one class to the other (rarer).
5.Which problem or problems have you observed in the department and the school in
general?
-The absence of teachers that are part time. Almost 100% of the teachers have full
occupation in the University. The new teachers that arrive have this characteristic.
6.Suggestions if you have any to solve them:
-Make new contracts with teachers part time and can even be in finite time.
49
C. Interview 3:
1.Full name:
-Helena Motta.
2.Studies done at UFRJ:
-Industrial Design.
3.Years and UFRJ and years at the DEL:
-Four years at UFRJ.
4.Overall opinion about how the department works:
-The departments and school in general should be more organized.
5.Which problem or problems have you observed in the department and the school in
general?
-The biggest disadvantage was choosing the subjects. Not enough room for everyone.
6.Suggestions if you have any to solve them:
-Improve the communications between, school personnel, teachers and students.
D. Interview 4:
1.Full name:
-Paulo Sergio Ramirez Diniz.
2.Job position at UFRJ:
-Professor Titular.
3.Years and UFRJ and years at the DEL:
-35 years.
4.Overall opinion about how the department works:
-It works well given the limited financial and management supports.
50
5.Which problem or problems have you observed in the department and the school in
general?
-Given the quality of its students, more investments in the laboratories would benefit
everyone.
6.Suggestions if you have any to solve them:
-There should be an increase of investment in the facilities for the students.
E. Interview 5:
1. Nome:
-Carlos José Ribas d´Ávila.
2. Cargo na UFRJ:
-Coordenador de Curso.
3. Anos trabalhados na UFRJ e anos trabalhados no DEL:
-São os mesmos, trabalho desde 1979 na UFRJ e no DEL (36 anos).
4. Opinião pessoal do departamento:
-Curso com estrutura curricular com forte base matemática e generalista, do ponto de
vista tecnológico.
Corpo docente com elevada produção científica e qualificação profissional.
-Infraestrutura de salas de aulas adequada às necessidades do curso.
5. Quais são problemas mais importantes que você tem observado no departamento e na
-Escola em geral: Número insuficiente de computadores, falta de uma rede eficiente de
Wi-Fi, Internet de alta velocidade, estrutura para vídeo-conferências, laboratórios para
áreas específicas, tais como, robótica, telefonia celular, eletrônica embarcada
(microcontroladores), ...
6. Sugestões (se tiver) para resolvê-las:
-Investimentos, porém cada vez mais difíceis nos dias de hoje.