Know the UFG Regional Catalão

Catalão, the "Athens of Goiás"

Catalão is a Brazilian municipality located in the southeastern state of Goiás, with relative proximity of the state and federal capitals, median proximity of important Brazilian cities (distances in km): Goiânia 259; Anápolis 271; Brasília 300, Uberlândia 110; São Paulo 697, Belo Horizonte 590 and Uberaba 220. Economically, Catalão is one of the fastest growing cities in the country (growth of 457% between 2004 and 20014) and a result of the economic potential of Catalão.

The population is estimated to be more than 100.000 inhabitants, making it the 13th most populous municipality in Goiás, which proved to be a gimmick for new business: well served by hospitals, schools, higher education institutions, transportation and telecommunications, the city became one of the most important economies in Goiás, reaching, in 2012, the third largest GDP in the state. Catalão has a strong strong industry (Goiás's 3rd largest industrial park) and highly developed services and trade sector, productive farming (6th place in the Goiás ranking) and being the largest mineral province in the State, the city forms the ideal environment for new investments, activities logistics and production flow and for the development of teaching, research and innovation activities.

For its vast cultural production and historical value, Catalão is considered as the "Athens of Goiás", which attracts tourists from various locations. The congada for example (traditional Catalão religious festival), are one of the oldest folkloric and religious manifestations of the whole Center-West region, and attract every year 100 thousand visitors to Catalão. At the top of the São João hill is the Church of São João, which after its renovation was considered a historical patrimony of the city and also attracts numerous visitors. In addition, from a cultural point of view, Catalan is well served by amphitheaters, museums, libraries and also has a cultural center. In addition to all these attractions, many tourists stay in the city to go visit the neighboring municipality of Três Ranchos, known for its lakes with diversified options for water recreation.

In terms of education, Catalão has educational units ranging from children's education to higher education. In Basic Education, there are several quality schools for elementary and secondary education. The city also has a good offer of pre-entrance courses both private and public. In Professional Education, Catalão has offices of the IFGoiano, SENAC, SENAI, SENAR and CEPAC, with extensive and modern facilities and courses focused on several areas: beauty, environment, computer science, health, mechanics, electrical, automobile, mining and others . In higher education, Catalão has two private institutions (Centro de Ensino Superior de Catalão and a Campus of the UNA) and a regional public institution of the Federal University of Goiás. Just these institutions offer 40 undergraduate courses.

The UFG-Catalão

The UFG began its activities in Catalan in 1983 and was driven by federal government programs such as Expansão and REUNI, currently offering, in Catalão, in addition to the PhD in Exact and Technological Sciences, 26 undergraduate courses, 10 programs leading to master's degrees (30% graduate studies in the interior of Goiás) and dozens of specialization courses. In the area of ​​Exact Sciences are offered undergraduate courses in Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Industrial Mathematics and Civil Engineering, Mining and Production. At the masters level, the academic programs of Chemistry and Modeling and Optimization are offered, as well as the professional programs in the network of Teaching Physics and Teaching Mathematics. Finally, in 2016, the activities of the PhD in Exact and Technological Sciences, the first PhD in the area of ​​Exact Sciences of the interior of Goiás, begin. Undoubtedly, these figures (considerable for a campus in the interior of the country) are a reflex of the Catalão´s regional insertion and evidences its vocation to act in the research and in the graduated studies and, reflecting the accomplishment of a systematic policy of incentive to research and graduated studies within the UFG-Catalão.

From a physical point of view, UFG-Catalão is installed in an area of ​​89,992.50 m². In the year 2009, the construction area corresponds to approximately 20,000 m², distributed among classrooms, classrooms for teachers, secretaries, laboratories, geoprocessing, computer science, museums, laboratory buildings, auditoriums and library (which has a collection of approximately 60 thousand copies).

Aerial views of UFG-Catalan: top facilities (esq), facilities of the bottom, (dir).

Image credits: Paulo Cabral Junior, 2015.

Currently, the student body of Regional Catalão / UFG is composed of more than 3,200 regularly enrolled students. From the beginning of activities in 1986, until 2011, Regional Catalão has a total of 27,631 students. The faculty has more than 295 teachers and 72 administrative technicians, as well as outsourced employees and service providers

   

 

For the PhD in Exact and Technological Sciences, UFG-Catalão has 11 multi-user laboratories distributed in the IFQ and in the School of Engineering, among them the Materials Chemistry Lab, the Environmental Sciences Lab, the Analytical Instrumentation Lab, Radiological Characterization of Materials, Molecular Biology Lab, Mineral Processing Lab, High Performance Computing Lab, and Computational Modeling Lab. In the research activities are also used two support workshops: Electronics Workshop and the Mechanical Fabrication Workshop. This research structure is in continuous growth, in fact for example in the next years will be installed the Multidisciplinary Center for Characterization of Molecules and Materials, with resources coming from PROINFRA. Naturally, a PhD program in Exact and Technological Sciences will enable the consolidation of the research in the interior of Goiás and create a pole of diffusion of knowledge and research in the areas of Exact and Technological Sciences in the state. In addition to its multidisciplinary character, it carries the potential of becoming an irradiating element of a new epistemological vision that overcomes the barriers and limits established among the areas of knowledge involved. In this sense, it is envisaged that this initiative places the university in a position of greater protagonism in the academic environment and also the companies in the region.