UFV

Located in the Zona da Mata Mineira region, the city of Viçosa – MG, is situated about 230 km from the state capital Belo Horizonte, around 338 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro, and approximately 658 km from São Paulo. Viçosa has a population of just over 85,000 inhabitants and is home to the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV).

With more than 99 years of history, UFV is a renowned Brazilian university. It offers more than 40 undergraduate programs, a total of 40 academic master’s programs, and 33 doctoral programs, currently hosting over 18,000 students across its three campuses. The city of Viçosa also hosts additional higher education centers from private institutions, further consolidating its role as an important hub for teaching and research at the national level.

At the international level, UFV stands out for maintaining a considerable number of agreements and partnerships with foreign institutions. These are strategic cooperation agreements aimed primarily at the exchange of faculty, students, academic information, and materials, as well as the development of collaborative actions in areas of mutual interest. UFV maintains a total of 158 international agreements with universities and foreign organizations in more than 33 countries, including the USA, United Kingdom, Italy, China, France, and Germany.

At the regional level, within the microregion of Viçosa, UFV founded and continues to oversee the activities of the Centro Tecnológico de Desenvolvimento Regional de Viçosa (CenTev) and its units: the Viçosa Technology Park (tecnoPARQ) and the Technology-Based Business Incubator (IEBT). CenTev’s mission is to promote interaction among academia, the public sector, private companies, and society, creating pathways for the development of Viçosa and its surrounding region. With a highly qualified and diverse team of professionals trained in various fields of knowledge, CenTev fosters a privileged environment for entrepreneurship, research, development, and innovation. Institutions and companies find in tecnoPARQ the ideal environment to carry out their activities and establish their research, development, and innovation (R&D&I) centers.

In its various areas of activity, UFV grounds its actions and practices in scientific and academic knowledge. Recognizing the importance of every field of knowledge, from the Exact and Earth Sciences to the Humanities, the institution views them as interconnected gears of a great engine working in harmony. In this context, Mathematics and its related fields have always held an important and relevant place at UFV, making significant contributions to human progress and development.

The Department of Mathematics (DMA) at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) was established in 1969, with the Federalization of the institution. Its actual implementation, however, took place two years later, in 1971. Initially, the DMA was staffed with seven professors who taught Mathematics and Statistics to students in the programs offered at the time. With the introduction of new programs, such as the Mathematics degree in 1972, and the increase in enrollment in existing programs, it became necessary to expand the faculty through the hiring of new professors.

In 1992, the Department of Computer Science was created, and professors in the fields of Statistics and Computer Science were transferred to it, leaving in the Department of Mathematics the faculty specializing in Pure Mathematics (Analysis, Algebra, and Geometry) and Numerical Analysis.

The Department of Mathematics is responsible for teaching Mathematics and Numerical Analysis, with its courses being part of the curricula of almost all UFV undergraduate programs. Currently, the department offers three undergraduate programs (Mathematics – with majors in Bachelor’s and Teaching degrees – and the evening Teaching degree in Mathematics), being responsible for most of the courses within their curricula. The Mathematics program at UFV has graduated numerous students who went on to pursue graduate studies at prestigious centers, at the master’s or doctoral level, and most of them achieved success. Today, some are part of the DMA/UFV faculty, while others work in various higher education institutions.

The DMA/UFV has been committed to improving faculty qualification, seeking to enhance teaching quality while also expanding research and outreach activities. The main research areas pursued by its faculty include Partial Differential Equations, Algebraic Geometry, Dynamical Systems, and Algebra.

DMA professors, with support primarily from CNPq and FAPEMIG, have developed research projects either individually or in collaboration with professors from other departments or institutions in Brazil and abroad. The results of these studies have been published in national and international journals and presented at conferences in Brazil and worldwide.

The state of Minas Gerais has more than 18 Public Higher Education Institutions (IPES), Federal Centers for Technological Education (CEFETs), and several large private higher education institutions. Most of these institutions, whether public or private, offer undergraduate programs in Mathematics. However, the state of Minas Gerais has only four Academic Master’s Programs in Mathematics.

Currently, the exodus of students from Minas Gerais to other states in search of graduate programs in Mathematics represents a significant loss for the development of this field in the state.

In 2007, the DMA submitted to CAPES a proposal for an Academic Master’s Program in partnership with the Department of Mathematics at UFMG. The program was approved and confirmed by the CNE (Ordinance No. 87-DOU of 01/18/2008). The first class began in March 2008 with 8 students, all of whom defended their dissertations in 2010. In October 2010, the program became independent from UFMG, and since then, it has graduated a total of 125 master’s students.

Tracking of graduates from the Graduate Program at UFV (PPG-UFV) shows, for instance, that of the 102 students who graduated from the PPGM-UFV by the end of 2020, about 68% are engaged in teaching activities at public or private institutions (at technical and higher education levels), while 59% continued their studies in doctoral programs at different institutions in Brazil.

The DMA currently has 37 faculty members, 95% of whom hold a Ph.D. In the Master’s Program in Mathematics, 15 Ph.D. professors are actively involved. Recently, the program was part of the National Academic Cooperation Program (PROCAD) in partnership with PUC-Rio, UFMG, and IME/USP. The DMA also participated in the INCTmat project (Process 573523/2008-80), coordinated by Prof. Jacob Palis. In this project, in collaboration with federal universities such as UFU, UFJS, UFJF, UFLA, UFMS, and UFOP, the DMA acted as a Virtual Development Center.

Furthermore, DMA was the local coordinator of the National Professional Master’s in Mathematics Network Program (PROFMAT), which was submitted by the Brazilian Mathematical Society to CAPES in 2009 and started in 2010. DMA joined this network in 2010, with its first cohort of 16 students beginning in the first semester of 2011. The second cohort started in the first semester of 2012 with 20 students.

Currently, DMA also coordinates an international cooperation agreement between UFV and the University of California, Riverside (Agreement No. 119/2021), which aims, among other things, to foster collaboration and exchange in research activities.