Computing Engineering - The evolution and importance of computer systems have become evident. Because of its strategic importance, this domain requires implementing a vigorous research and development program capable of advancing scientific and technological knowhow, even as it fosters the training o highly skilled human resources. Such professionals are essential to maintaining the area’s research system and also increasingly relevant to the development of the existing industrial base, as well as to the emergence of new high-tech business firms.

Engineering Telecommunication - The telecommunications area is marked by the provision of a basic, essential piece of infrastructure for the modern world. It is the consensus opinion of researchers and experts that modest and incremental modernization of existing communication systems will not be sufficient to meet the projected growth of the demand for bandwidth. Immediate investment is therefore needed in investigating new methods and technologies to prevent, or at least delay, the system’s imminent stagnation. On the domestic level, high-tech industry must be developed that can compete in this area of today’s globalized market.

Computing and Adaptive Systems – The track emphasizes the investigation of computer systems that, like natural adaptive ones, display high flexibility and robust operations. The notion of adaptiveness emerges in several topics countless areas of computer systems engineering, but with a strong connotation of architectures based on human intelligence and biology-inspired models in general. Therefore, the research track’s highlights include: construction of human learning process models; development of computing methods strongly inspired in biological reality; creation of systems-control algorithms through computational view; modeling natural and artificial dynamical systems; and the characterization of new computing models

Communication, Photonics and Signals – This Research Track emphasizes the study of optical communication systems, optical networks and the development of photonic devices for both communications and application to other areas in electrical engineering and sciences in general. In addition, studies are conducted of digital signals processing applications and the potential uses of communication systems. The research activities at hand are aligned with the following themes: study and development of new devices based on photonic crystal fibers (microstructured) for optical communication systems and other electrical engineering applications; development of Raman optical amplifiers and high-rate fiber lasers (10 GHz and up) with femtosecond pulses for WDM network applications; application of chaotic signals and systems to communication systems; study of the effect of physical layer constraints on wavelength-routed optical networks (WRN), new optical-burst switched (OBS) and optical-package switched (OPS) network architectures; analysis of propagation conditions in conductive gas media; the study of natural electromagnetic wave generation mechanisms and their propagation in non-lab reproducible media.