Over the two decades of PPGBEA's operations since its recognition by CAPES, the program has been systematically working towards internationalization, particularly since the approval of the doctorate program by CAPES in 2009. These efforts have resulted in several visits by foreign researchers from various countries over the years, visits abroad by our faculty, and most importantly, an active exchange between master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral students, as well as attracting students from abroad to graduate from our program. We have collaborated with professors from several countries, such as the USA (Professor Eugene Stanley from Boston University, Vijay Singh from Texas A&M, Chris Thaxton from Appalachian State University, Peter Veerman from Portland State University and Harvard University), Italy (Luciano Telesca from National Research Council, Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis), Argentina (Claudio Delrieux and Felix Thomsen from Universidad Nacional del Sur), Belgium (Milorad Milosevic from University of Antwerp), Serbia (Dragutin Mihailovic and Ilija Arsenic from University of Novi Sad, Milan Merkle, Vladimir Djurdjevi and Ivana Toši from University of Belgrade), France (David Nerini, Laure Peckerie, Jean-Christoph Poggiale and Cristèle Chevalier). Therefore, the internationalization of the program has been seen as one of the main long-term objectives, fully aligned with CAPES' criteria for achieving levels of excellence and in line with UFRPE's institutional policies. In the last four years, three fundamental strategies were implemented to consolidate this objective: 1) establishing solid international collaborations that allow for mutual interaction between students and faculty; 2) attracting master's and doctoral candidates from other countries; and 3) defending dissertations and theses in English, with the participation of foreign researchers. Partnerships with researchers abroad represent a great opportunity for our students to pursue doctoral internships, which has been increasingly common in our program in recent years.
Quantitative Analysis between 2017-2024:
1) STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE: ESTABLISHMENT OF STRONG INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS THAT ALLOW FOR MUTUAL INTERACTION BETWEEN STUDENTS AND FACULTY:
Below are the main institutions with which the PPGBEA has established collaborations, highlighting the main researchers involved.
- National University of the South (Argentina):
One of the PPGBEA's oldest collaborations, initiated on August 1, 2012, continues to this day. The cooperation is primarily between the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National University of the South, with Professor Dr. Claudio Delrieux. In addition to producing scientific articles authored by members of both groups, this cooperation has actively promoted the mobility of faculty and students from both sides throughout these years.
The activities included, in addition to research activities, several lectures, courses, and discussions with faculty and graduate students from various departments at the Universidad Nacional del Sur (National University of the South) in the case of the missions in Argentina, and the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco in the case of the missions in Brazil. The students involved took courses related to programming and image processing, which were fundamental to their professional training and the development of their theses. Significant advances were achieved in several specific research areas. In particular:
i) a library was developed for GPGPU (high-performance computing) to characterize 3D CT x-ray images using low-density percolating clustering, used in doctoral theses analyzing soil porosity and fish otoliths; ii) an algorithm was developed for acquiring tremor data (and visualizing it) using the LeapMotion device for subsequent multifractal analysis;
iii) multifractal spectrum and lacunarity analysis were performed on images obtained by osseointegration electron microscopy;
iv) development of algorithms for calculating local fractal dimensions for grayscale medical images, as part of the doctoral thesis of Felix Thomsen, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UNS, a member of the Argentine group in this project;
v) development of algorithms for data organization and fractal analysis of NDVI and land cover in Pernambuco, Brazil, and other locations of interest in Latin America;
vi) preparation and publication of scientific articles in high-impact international journals.
- IIASA (Austria) - UFRPE Bilateral Academic Contribution Agreement:
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is one of Europe's leading research centers and reflects the most relevant research in the areas of environment, sustainability, and complex systems analysis, resulting from cooperation between countries around the world. The cooperation with IIASA was initiated by Prof. Claudio Cristino during his postdoctoral studies, which he completed in the first half of 2018 through the IIASA/CAPES Program. Prof. Claudio carried out a short-term mission through PrInt and brokered a bilateral agreement for academic and scientific contributions between IIASA and UFRPE on September 1, 2019. During the four-year period, meetings were held between Prof. Cristino and UFRPE. Prof. Claudio and members of the institute met in November 2022 and April 2023, with the participation of Brian Fath, YSSP Scientific Coordinator - Capacity Development and Academic Training Unit, and Elena Rovenskaya - Program Director and Principal Research Scholar, Advancing Systems Analysis Program. Both were about scholarships for the Young Scientist Summer Program (YSSP) and possible mentorships. Prof. Claudio submitted a proposal for a Technical Mission Abroad (MTE) to PRINT/CAPES in 2023 to address these issues and further explore the research topics to be addressed in these mutual mentorships, but was not selected. However, a project is underway, planning training sessions and visits by UFRPE researchers to IIASA and their respective researchers to UFRPE for the next four years. As per the signed agreement, IIASA aims for UFRPE to become a local reference for research partnerships.
-Texas A&M University (USA):
The partnership with Prof. Claudio is a priority. Dr. Vijay Singh is also one of the longest-serving faculty members of the PPGBEA. It began in July 2012 at the invitation of Professors Borko Stosic, Tatiajana Stosic, and Ramon Cantalice, with ongoing research collaborations and student mentoring at the PPGBEA to this day. Despite Prof. Singh's retirement, other members of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering are also collaborating on research developed by our permanent faculty member, Dr. Ramon Cantalice. He completed his postdoctoral studies in this department between March 2023 and February 2024. His research covers the following areas: hydrodynamics of watershed runoff; erosion and sediment transport in upland watersheds; modeling of water quality from point and diffuse sources; streamflow forecasting; areal precipitation; hydrological impacts of climate change; watershed modeling; and ecosystem management. During the 2021-2024 quadrennium, the following articles were produced with Prof. Vijay Singh:
ALMEIDA, F. F. F. A.; CANTALICE, J. R. B.; ALMEIDA, D. T. R. G. F.; SOUZA, W. M.; SINGH, V. P.
Trend analysis in rainfall time series in some Brazilian semiarid cities. JOURNAL OF HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING, v. 11, p. 113-124, 2021. Qualis (ISSN: 2237-2202) B2
FARIAS S. MORAES, JULIANA; RAMON B. CANTALICE, JOSE; SINGH, VIJAY P.; PISCOYA, VICTOR
C.; Cunha Filho, Moacyr; M. S. GUERRA, SERGIO; LOURENCO RIBEIRO ALMEIDA, PABLO . Lateral
sediment connectivity by curve number and a proposed approach to soil erodibility at the watershed scale. CATENA, v. 234, p. 107611-13, 2024. Citations: 1|1 Qualis (ISSN: 0341-8162) 2020: A1.
- Aix-Marseille University (France):
Partnership initiated by Professor Dr. Paulo José Duarte Neto during his postdoctoral studies, which he completed from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020, at the Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie (MIO) at Aix-Marseille University (Marseille, France), as part of the PVnE (PrInt) junior fellowship. His supervisor was Prof. Dr. David Nerini, but he also collaborated with researchers Dr. Frédéric Menard, Dr. Aurnaud Betrand, and Dr. Jean-Christophe Poggiale. This partnership resulted in Professor Paulo Duarte participating in three research projects that also included the participation of MIO researchers. 1) Automated Plankton Reconnaissance to Identify Ecological Transitions and Shifts in the Mediterranean, funded by the ITEM Institute: Mediterranean Institute for Environmental Transition, with several researchers from MIO and other OSU PYTHEAS labs (RAPP Group). 2) BIOenergetic Modeling Approach for Sargassum Dynamics – BIOMAS, a project coordinated by MIO researcher Léo Berline and involving a large team of French, Brazilian, and Mexican researchers. The project is funded by FACEPE (Facebook, Facebook, and the Brazilian National Agency for Research in Environmental Research) and ANR (Brazilian National Agency for Research in Environmental Research). Prof. Paulo Duarte leads one of the project's working groups. Associated with this project are undergraduate student Felipe Romero Pacheco Segundo, with a PIBIC scholarship (CNPq/UFRPE), and PPGBEA doctoral student Caren Beatriz dos Santos Felix da Silva. 3) SargAlert: Integrative Approach for an Operational Forecast of Sargassum Strandings, a project coordinated by Dr. Audrey Minghelli of the University of Toulon, but the main interaction is with Dr. Cristèle Chevalier of the MIO, who leads one of the working groups of which Prof. Paulo Duarte is a member. Associated with this project is a PPGBEA student, Francisco Gustavo da Silva, who completed his master's degree with research related to the project and is now continuing this research in his doctorate.
- European University Institute of the Sea (France)
The main partner of this institute is researcher Dr. Laure Pecquerie, who shares the leadership of the BIOMAS project working group with Prof. Paulo Duarte of the PPGBEA. Paulo Duarte completed a working mission through PRINT/CAPES in December 2023, during which potential partnerships between the groups were defined, along with the joint supervision of a doctoral student at the Institute (Paulo Duarte served on this student's thesis committee), and key points of the BIOMAS project were discussed.
- University of Edinburgh (Scotland)
During Prof. Rafael Leite's postdoctoral internship in 2017, activities related to educational data analysis (Learning Analytics) were carried out. From there, a partnership emerged between Prof. Rafael and Prof. Dragan Gasevic, which has been quite productive in terms of writing articles and joint projects. In 2019, Prof. Rafael Ferreira held meetings with the University of Edinburgh, funded by the CAPES-PrInt Program, to finalize the partnership. This mission strengthened the professor's relationship with the international researchers involved. This partnership resulted in the following article publications in the 2021-2024 four-year period.
Ferreira, Rafael; FREITAS, ELYDA ; CABRAL, LUCIANO ; DAWN, FILIPE ; RODRIGUES, LUIZ ;
RAKOVIC, MLADEN ; RANIEL, JACKSON ; GASEVIC, DRAGAN. Words of Wisdom: A Journey through the Realm of NLP for Learning Analytics - A Systematic Literature Review. Journal Of Learning Analytics, v. 2024, p. 1-24, 2024.
ANDRE, MAVERICK ; Ferreira Mello, Rafael; NASCIMENTO, ANDRE ; DUEIRE LINS, RAFAEL;
GASEVIC, DRAGAN. Toward Automatic Classification of Online Discussion Messages for Social Presence. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, v. 1, p. 1-1, 2022. Citations: 8|10 Qualis (ISSN: 1939-1382)2020: A1
NETO, VALTER ; ROLIM, VITOR ; CAVALCANTI, ANDERSON PINHEIRO ; DUEIRE LINS, RAFAEL ;
GASEVIC, DRAGAN ; FERREIRAMELLO, RAFAEL . Automatic Content Analysis of Online Discussions for Cognitive Presence: A Study of the Generalizability across Educational Contexts. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, v. 1, p. 1-1, 2021. Citations: 20|24 Qualis (ISSN: 1939-1382)2020: A1.
Inter-institutional agreement: Transilvania University of Brasov - UFRPE (Romania)
An agreement established between the Universities of Transilvania and UFRPE, valid until 2027, focuses primarily on researcher and student mobility. During this four-year period, two visits to the University of Transilvania were made by professors Dr. Moacyr Cunha and Dr. Lucian Bejan. Prof. Moacyr taught the short course "The Use of SPSS in the Applicability of Economics and Administration" in January 2023, and Prof. Bejan participated in the International Week: Integrating Digital Technologies and Online Learning in Higher Education and Erasmus+ Mobilities, from April 24 to 28, 2023.
- University of Belgrade (Republic of Serbia):
Important and recent scientific collaboration began in June 2023 with the scientific visit conducted by the program's permanent faculty members, Prof. Borko Stosic and Prof. Lucian Bejan. Tatijana Stosic was invited to the Institute of Meteorology, Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade, Serbia, from June 11 to October 6, 2023. They were welcomed by Prof. Vladimir Djurdjevic and Prof. Ivana Tosic, internationally renowned researchers and two of the Institute's leading researchers. The research conducted by both groups focuses on explaining climate phenomena using computational modeling and emerging techniques in statistical physics and geostatistics. In 2024, with funding from Print/CAPES, Prof. Borko and Prof. Tatijana spent six months (May to October 2024) as visiting professors at the Institute. Also through Print, Prof. Antônio Samuel made a scientific visit to the same Institute, aiming to expand research collaboration between our Graduate Program and researchers from the Institute of Meteorology. This has been a very productive international collaboration (see articles below). A visit by these researchers to our Graduate Program is planned for 2025.
STOSIC, Tatijana; TO?I', MILICA ; LAZI', IRIDA; DA SILVA ARAÚJO, LIDIANE ; DA SILVA, ANTONIO SAMUEL ALVES; PUTNIKOVI', SUZANA; DJURDJEVI', VLADIMIR; TO?I', IVANA ; Stosic, Borko.
Changes in rainfall seasonality in Serbia from 1961 to 2020. THEORETICAL AND APPLIED CLIMATOLOGY, v. 155, p. 1, 2024. Citations:2|2 Qualis (ISSN: 0177-798X)2020: A3
DJURDJEVI', VLADIMIR; Stosic, Borko; TO?I', MILICA ; LAZI', IRIDA; PUTNIKOVI', SUZANA; STOSIC,
Tatijana; TO?I', IVANA . Analysis of recent trends and spatiotemporal changes of droughts over Serbia using high-resolution gridded data. ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH, v. 304, p. 107376, 2024. Citations:7|4 Qualis (ISSN: 0169-8095)2020: A1
Stosic, Borko; DJURDJEVI', VLADIMIR; TO?I', MILICA ; LAZI', IRIDA; TO?I', IVANA ; STOSIC, Tatijana.
Generalized weighted permutation entropy analysis of index in Serbia as a proxy of corn production. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, v. 44, p. 1-15, 2024. Citations: 1 Qualis (ISSN: 0899-
8418) 2020: A1
STOSIC, Tatijana ; TO?I', IVANA ; LAZI', IRIDA ; TO?I', MILICA ; FILIPOVI', LAZAR ; DJURDJEVI',
VLADIMIR ; Stosic, Borko . Multifractal Analysis of Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index in Serbia in the Context of Climate Change. Sustainability, v. 16, p. 9857, 2024. Citations: 2 Qualis (ISSN: 2071-1050) 2020: A2
STOSIC, Tatijana ; Stosic, Borko ; TO?I', MILICA ; LAZI', IRIDA ; DJURDJEVI', VLADIMIR ; TO?I', IVANA.
Climate Change Effects through MFDFA Study of Temperature in Serbia. Atmosphere, v. 14, p. 1532, 2023. Citations: 4|4 Qualis (ISSN: 2073-4433) 2020: A4
- University of Novi Sad (Republic of Serbia):
Between June 29 and September 30, 2022, Professors Borko Stosic and Tatijana Stosic paid a scientific visit to the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia, to consolidate their scientific collaboration with Prof. Ilija Arsenic, with whom they have maintained a strong scientific relationship since 2017. During this four-year period, the following article was published: da Silva, A. S. A., Stosic, T., Arseni, I., Menezes, R. S. C., & Stosic, B. (2023). Multifractal analysis of standardized precipitation index in Northeast Brazil. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 172, 113600.
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vinca, Belgrade:
Between August 15 and October 18, 2021, Professors Borko Stosic and Tatijana Stosic carried out a scientific visit to the Institute of Nuclear Sciences “Vinca”, Belgrade, Serbian Republic, to consolidate scientific collaboration with Dr. Slobodan Maletic and Dr. Miroslav Andjelkovic, in a new area of data analysis: topological data analysis.
Andjelkovi, M., Maleti, S., Stosic, T., & Stosic, B. (2024). Rainfall dynamics in an ecologically vulnerable area using applied algebraic topology methods. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 182, 114782.
-Applied Mathematics, CEIGRAM, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid:
The collaboration between PPGBEA and the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks (CEIGRAM), coordinated by Prof. Ana Tarquis, has played a very important role in the last four years and has the potential to be a very productive collaboration for our program. In 2023, Prof. Tarquis participated in the research (see article below) and on the thesis defense committee of graduate Domingos Aguiar. In 2024, Prof. Ana Tarquis visited our institution with Print/CAPES funding, participating in two events: the Quantitative Methods in Agrarian Environmental Sciences Workshop (an event held entirely in English at our PPG) and the CAPES-PRINT UFRPE Meeting, the closing event of the CAPES-PRINT program. This cooperation is planned to continue with the joint supervision of PPGBEA students and research missions from both sides. AGUIAR, DOMINGOS; MENEZES, RÔMULO SIMÕES CEZAR; ANTONINO, ANTONIO CELSO
DANTAS; STOSIC, Tatijana; TARQUIS, ANA M.; STOSIC, Borko. Quantifying Soil Complexity Using the Fisher Shannon Method on 3D X-ray Computed Tomography Scans. Entropy, v. 25, p. 1465, 2023. Qualis (ISSN: 1099-4300) 2020: A2.
Other Collaborations and Internationalization Activities:
Regarding the collaboration with Appalachian State University (North Carolina, USA), where Professors Borko Stosic and Tatijana Stosic were visiting professors funded by the United States, with the aim of establishing new international collaborations and attracting students from this American institution for regular or exchange doctoral programs in our program, in 2017 we published the article "Thaxton, C.S.; Anderson, W.P.; Gu, C.; Stosic, B.; Stosic, T. Detrended fluctuation analysis and entropy-complexity causality analysis of temperatures in an urbanized mountain stream. Stochastic environmental research and risk assessment, v. 1, p. 1-16, 2017."
-With the National Center for Agricultural Health (CUBA), scientific and academic collaboration was carried out through the project "Statistical modeling applied to the assessment of the health and economic impact of prevention and control programs in animal production." This project was approved by CAPES, Notice 046/2013, and was renewed in 2016, concluding on December 31, 2018. This project enabled a
significant exchange of students and researchers throughout the previous and current four-year periods. It is yielding publications related to our graduate, Edyniesky Ferrer Miranda, who holds Cuban nationality. We had a visit from Dr. Pastor Alfonso Zamora in December 2017, and that same month, Professor Kléber Régis Santoro visited the Cuban Census. In 2018, Dr. Maria Írian Percedo Abreu joined our program on a work mission for the same project. We also hosted a PhD student, Yosdany Centelles Garcia, from August to December 2018. Professor Kléber Régis Santoro also conducted a work mission from December 3rd to 14th, offering a 25-hour Geostatistics mini-course.
- Collaboration with the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD-France)
Dr. Arnaud Betrand has collaborated effectively in a partnership network involving the Graduate Program in Biometry and Statistics (UFRPE), the Graduate Program in Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture (UFRPE), and the Graduate Program in Oceanography (UFPE) for the development and submission of a FACEPE/ANR cooperation project. These researchers are engaged in various research activities, including related publications. At PPGBEA, Dr. Arnaud Bertrand was co-advisor to Carlos Henrique Santos Silva and Josafá Reis Jr., who received their master's degrees in 2019 and their doctorates in 2023, respectively.
Currently, Professors Paulo José Duarte Neto, Tatijana Stosic, and Borko Stosic, along with several students from the program, are members of the IJL TAPIOCA: Tropical Atlantic Interdisciplinary Laboratory on Physical, Biogeochemical, Ecological, and Human Dynamics. A multidisciplinary laboratory, comprised of students and researchers from IRD, UFRPE, UFPE, and several other Brazilian and French institutions, it aims to play a key role in the creation of a Regional Center of Excellence in Marine Sciences for the Tropical Atlantic in Recife. TAPIOCA holds two annual hybrid meetings, where researchers and students have the opportunity to present their research findings and engage in academic interactions. All presentations are in English, providing a great opportunity for students to practice their language skills.
- Saint Petersburg State University, PhD student Henrique Pinto dos Santos Zaidan completed a sandwich doctorate (6 months).
- One-year sandwich doctorate (PDSE-CAPES) by graduate Edneide Ramalho at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain).
RAMALHO, EDNEIDE; ALBUQUERQUE, JONES; CRISTINO, CLÁUDIO; LORENA, VIRGINIA; GÓMEZ
I PRAT, JORDI; PRATS, CLARA; LÓPEZ, DANIEL. Congenital and Blood Transfusion Transmission of Chagas Disease: A Framework Using Mathematical Modeling. COMPLEXITY, v. 2018, p. 1-10, 2018.
2) STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE: ATTRACTING MASTER'S AND DOCTORAL CANDIDATES FROM OTHER COUNTRIES:
In particular, during the 2021-2024 four-year period, we had four international students: DANIEL LEONARDO RAMIREZ OROZCO (Colombia), CAMILO OCAMPO MARULANDA (Colombia), JOSE PORTEZ SIBINDE
(Mozambique), and MANUEL JOAO CASTIGO (Mozambique), and seven alumni (four from Colombia, one from Venezuela, one from El Salvador, and one from Cuba). All of them were scholarship students at the Graduate Program (PG). This number has been growing with the increased number of scholarships offered, enabling us to attract more international students.
3) STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE: DISSERTATION AND THESIS DEFENSES WRITTEN IN ENGLISH, WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF FOREIGN RESEARCHERS
The PPGBEA coordination has encouraged the preparation of theses and dissertations in English to, in addition to increasing the visibility of the research developed within the program, increasingly allow the participation of foreign researchers in defense committees. Below is a list of theses and dissertations written in English. Those also defended in English will be highlighted with an (*).
Luciano Serafim de Souza - Lackadaisical Quantum Walk Analyses With Partial Phase Inversion Proposal. 2024
Fábio Sandro dos Santos - Modeling wind speed and solar radiation in Brazil using mathematical-computational techniques. 2023
Josafá José do Carmo Reis Júnior - Application of geometric morphometrics to understand ecological aspects of marine fish in the Southwestern Tropical Atlantic. 2023
*José Domingos Albuquerque Aguiar - Characterization of soil microstructure using 3D X-ray tomographic images (Prof. Ana Tarquis as a panel member). 2023
Daniel Leonardo Ramírez Orozco - Some Results on Stochastic Comparisons by Majorization Theory and Goodness-of-Fit Measures Based on the Mellin Transform. 2022
Fábio Veríssimo Jaques da Silveira - New normal-based classes of probability distributions (temporary embargo). 2022
*Patrícia de Souza Medeiros Pina Ximenes - Drought Analysis in Northeast Brazil - Probability Distribution Models and the Markov Chain Approach (temporary embargo). 2022.
*Henrique Pinto dos Santos Zaidan - Mathematical Models of Warrant Policies: A Game Theory Perspective. 2021.
Kerolly Kedma Felix do Nascimento - Modeling and behavioral analysis of the cryptocurrency market.
2021
OTHER INFORMATION RELATED TO INTERNATIONALIZATION:
-PrInt-CAPES Program:
Approval for the CAPES-PRINT Institutional Internationalization Program of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, in which the Graduate Program in Biometrics and Applied Statistics participated, was extremely beneficial to the PPGBEA. During the 2021-2024 four-year period, we approved two scientific missions (France and Serbia), one Visiting Professor Abroad (Serbia), and one Visiting Professor Abroad (Spain). In the previous four-year period, four students were approved to begin their participation in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these missions were suspended and have not been resumed since.
- Synergy between Funding Programs:
In addition to PrInt, the PPGBEA has been seeking funding from other sources to foster its internationalization efforts:
International scientific production with Open Access, through the Graduate Support Program (PROAP): Costs for publication in high-impact factor (JCR) journals and in Open Access mode are reimbursed, generating greater visibility for PPGBEA's scientific production.
Participation in international scientific events through the Graduate Support Program (PROAP): Payment of registration fees for international scientific events to increase the visibility of PPGBEA's production and foster interaction.
LOCAL, REGIONAL, AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION:
In recent years, PPGBEA, aiming to strengthen its academic and research collaboration network, has established several partnerships with institutions in the state of Pernambuco and other states across various regions of the country, which are highlighted below.
At UFPE, we highlight the academic exchange with the Department of Nuclear Energy (DEN/UFPE), where there are collaborations and joint training of master's and doctoral students in research involving the X-ray Computed Tomography Laboratory (LTC) of the Center for Non-Destructive Testing of X-ray Applications (NENDARX) (DEN-UFPE). The exchange with this laboratory, coordinated by Professor Antonio Antonino, began with the cooperation proposal between PPGBEA/UFRPE and UNS (CAPES/MYNCIT) in 2013 and was strengthened by the approval of another research project, "AIMMO Project" (APQ-0178-1.08/14, FACEPE/CNPq), completed in 2024. Currently, this partnership includes another approved project, the FORMA Project - Analysis of Radiodensity and Morphology of Fish Otoliths, funded by FACEPE.
Professor Tiago Alessandro Espínola Ferreira was appointed as UFRPE's ambassador to the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), with the goal of serving as the focal point for the use of the Santos Dumont Supercomputer. SDumont has an installed processing capacity of approximately 5.1 Petaflops and a total of 36,472 CPU cores distributed across 1,134 computing nodes, the majority of which are composed exclusively of multi-core CPUs. The supercomputer also features a Lustre parallel file system, integrated with the Infiniband network, with a gross storage capacity of approximately 1.7 PBytes, as well as a secondary file system with a gross capacity of 640 TBytes.
An important feature of our program is our continued collaboration with our alumni, aiming to continue supporting recent graduates. Notable among these partnerships is our exchange with the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science (DECAT) of the Federal University of Sergipe, which has several alumni of our Master's program on its faculty. We recently completed a Dinter with the Federal University of São Paulo (UFS), approved in 2014, initiated in 2015, and completed in 2019. Five professors earned doctoral degrees. This was of great value to the host institution, as it significantly improved its staff without requiring any permanent leave of absence from the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. This partnership with the Federal University of São Paulo (UFS) is not limited to the Dinter; there is also research collaboration between professors Borko Stosic and Tatijana Stosic and Professor Milan Lalic of the UFS Physics Department, as well as collaboration with DECAT professors Allan Robert da Silva, Rodrigo da Silva, and Esdras Adriano, all of whom are our alumni. Professors Tatijana Stosic and Tiago Ferreira also maintain active research collaborations with our alumnus Silvio Xavier, from the State University of Campina Grande, with recent articles, and with alumnus Ikaro Barreto, from the Brazilian Center for Research in Evaluation, Selection, and Event Promotion (Cebraspe), as evidenced by the large number of articles published by these alumni. Professor Paulo Duarte maintains partnerships with alumni Jonas Vasconcelos Filho (UAST – UFRPE) and Josafá Reis Jr. (a scholarship holder at UFS).
Our faculty members Antônio Samuel Alves da Silva, Moacyr Cunha Filho, Romulo Menezes, Borko Stosic, and Tatijana Stosic also actively collaborate with Professor Osvaldo Anibal Rosso (“father” of the Permutation Entropy Complexity Causality Plane method), from the Institute of Physics, Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), with recent articles.
Furthermore, we collaborate with the UFPE Computer Science Center, whose graduate program has a CAPES rating of 7, through the exchange between Professor Paulo Salgado Gomes de Mattos Neto (CIn) and Professor Tiago Alessandro Espínola Ferreira (PPGBEA), as well as between Professor Teresa Bernarda Ludermir (CIn) and Professors Wilson Rosa de Oliveira Júnior (PPBGBEA), Borko Stosic (PPGBEA), and Tatijana Stosic (PPGBEA). Most recently, Adenilton José da Silva, our collaborating faculty member until 2019, transferred to CIn, collaborating with Professor Wilson Rosa de Oliveira Junior. It is worth noting that these collaborations have already yielded several publications between the two programs.
Professors Guilherme Rocha Moreira and Moacyr Cunha Filho have established a research partnership with the Department of Animal Science at the Federal University of Paraíba, through their collaboration with Professor Maria Lindomárcia Leonardo da Costa. This partnership resulted in publications in 2019, including:
Our partnership with UFPE also extends to the Department of Oceanography, where there is a research group with participation from the PPGBEA (Graduate Program in Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture) at UFRPE, through a partnership between Professors Paulo José Duarte Neto, our former professor and external participant Professor Rosângela Paula Teixeira Lessa and Professor Borko Stosic (UFPE), and Professor Beatrice Padovani Ferreira (UFPE), as well as our graduate and current UFPE postdoctoral fellow, Jonas Eloi Vasconcelos Filhos.
The partnership between Professor Paulo José Duarte Neto and Prof. Dr. Evaldo Espíndola, a full professor at the University of São Paulo and head of the Center for Ecotoxicology and Applied Ecology (NEEA), has been strengthening its partnership since 2019, publishing two more articles in the last four years. This partnership also includes the participation of several NEEA students and alumnus Mickaelle Almeida.
Professor Paulo José Duarte Neto has been a member of the National Network of Forensic Isotopes (RENIF - https://www.renifbrasil.org) since 2020. This collaborative network has secured approval for several projects involving several PPGBEA faculty and students: "Origin Tracing and Georeferencing of Criminal Evidence Based on Isotopic and Elemental Tracers" - a PROCAD Public Security and Forensic Sciences (CAPES) call, coordinated by Prof. Martinelli; "IsoProb: A system for the geographic attribution of criminal evidence based on spatial machine learning and multi-isotopic modeling" – FACEPE-FAPESP PUBLIC CALL 08/2022 FOR RESEARCH SUPPORT IN APPLIED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI), coordinated by Prof. Paulo Duarte; CNPq/MCTI/FNDCT No. 18/2021 - Track B - Consolidated Groups - Mechanistic isotopic models: basis for predictions on the incorporation of environmental isotopic ratios in animal tissues, coordinated by Prof. Gabriela Nardoto (UNB); and, most importantly, the approval of the "INCT - Forensic Metrology and Traceability in Agro-Environmental Quality - MRFor," coordinated by Prof. Martinelli. In addition to the numerous joint publications, the approval of these various projects demonstrates the strength of this research network.
In general, given the importance of the Graduate Program in Biometrics and Applied Statistics for the field of statistics and agronomic experimentation, particularly in the Northeast region of the country, we have established a series of partnerships with institutions that conduct research in the agricultural sciences. As previously mentioned, we have alumni from almost all federal universities in this region, who strive to maintain a positive relationship with our program. We can mention Professor Silvio Fernando Alves Xavier Júnior at the State University of Paraíba; Professors Lázaro Souto de Araújo and Luiz Medeiros de Araújo Lima Filho (currently coordinator of the Graduate Program in Health Decision Models) at the Federal University of Paraíba; and Professors Luiz Henrique Gama Dore de Araújo, Esdras Adriano Barbosa dos Santos, Amanda da Silva Lira, Eucymara França Nunes Santos, Allan Robert da Silva, Juliana Kátia da Silva, and José Rodrigo Santos Silva at the Federal University of Sergipe. These faculty members continue to be part of our research groups, with joint publications, while demonstrating scientific maturity to forge their own paths and establish scientific partnerships independent of our program. The active participation of graduates in universities abroad, such as Dr. Daniel Orosco, a professor at one of Colombia's leading institutions (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), demonstrates the PPGBEA's nucleating power, which extends beyond the regional and national spheres.
Permanent faculty placement percentages for the 2021-2024 four-year period:
25% in outreach projects
81.25% in knowledge popularization initiatives
12.5% in non-academic committees
37.5% in funding agency committees
37.5% with awards, recognitions, and distinctions
25% as editor/editorial board
43.75% as event organizer
56.5% with productivity grants
31.5% as speakers.