I – Social Insertion

The PPCIC aims at the formation of qualified human resources in the area of ​​Computer Science, emphasizing Data Science. In particular, it aims at training researchers capable of solving real-world problems that establish a virtuous cycle between applied and basic research. As recent experiences can be cited the works of the following students:

  • Alexandre Cunha, who proposes a model for detecting adverse drug events in social media texts;
  • Augusto Mendonça, who studies the Qualified Grouping Problem applied to problems of consumption readings in service networks (energy, water, gas) in order to determine billing regions that are compact and homogeneous regarding the workload;
  • Carlos Alberto Martins de Sousa Teles, who proposes a system for detecting malicious traffic on computer networks, which can be used in domestic or corporate computing environments;
  • Carlos Roberto Gonçalves Viana Filho, who proposes a Brazilian standard of conformity assessment in computational environments based on risks, to be used in organs of the State Government of RJ;
  • Francimary Garcia, who presents a data integration model to support the initial process of developing new drugs to combat schistosomiasis;
  • Ellen Silva, who proposes the use of sensory effects associated with reading to help treat children with dyslexia;
  • Gustavo Pacheco who studies the Key Allocation Problem in a power distribution network with distributed generation in order to optimize the reliability of the network;
  • Ivair Luques, who proposed an approach integrating artificial neural networks and combinatorial optimization for detecting plagiarism in textual documents;
  • Jomar Monsores, who built a Robotic Tool to Assist People with Dyslexia;
  • Jorge de Brito, who proposes a method for optimizing sensor positioning applied to Wireless Underground Sensor Networks to prevent landslides;
  • Leonardo Ferreira, who creates a model for automatic detection of sexual predators considering texts in Brazilian Portuguese;
  • Raphael Abreu that allows the inclusion of multisensory tools in multimedia applications;
  • Rebecca Salles who linked the forecast of sea surface temperature with the occurrence of extreme climatic events such as droughts in the Northeast;
  • Ribamar Matias, who presents the creation of a database that provides data on functional annotations and comparative genomics on the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa CCBH4851, an important pathogenic agent that causes severe hospital infections and multidrug-resistant antibiotics;
  • Ramon Dias, who developed a data augmentation methodology for training models that integrate computer vision and natural language processing;
  • Rodolpho Nascimento, who presents a model for detecting texts with expressions of depression on social networks;
  • Wellington Amaral, who developed a methodology based on graph mining to identify signs of irregularities in public procurement;

This approach has a strong interaction with society. In this scenario, the PPCIC presents itself as the first stricto sensu graduate program in Brazil with a focus on Data Science. This opens a space of prominence for CEFET / RJ in the Brazilian scenario in this domain, which brings opportunities to establish various partnerships and actions that increase the social insertion of the Program.

In addition to the actions in the area of ​​basic education, described in the next section, the PPCIC seeks to strengthen ties with various institutions in the fields of application in order to develop solutions that support them. We are currently part of the reference team of the Fiocruz Health Applied Data Science project (http://bigdata.icict.fiocruz.br), for example, in order to provide computational frameworks to support the management and analysis process of health-related data.

Another more general action is the organization of events open to the community. There are both annual events (such as Teaching, Research and Extension Week) and weekly events (such as seminars at the School of Informatics & Computing). At these events, several lectures are presented in the field of computing, both academic and entrepreneurial and marketing. A similar initiative takes place in Petrópolis, where there is a Computer Engineering Week, where mini-courses, lectures, and a round table on various computing topics are offered, offered by the institution’s professors, external members and by professionals from companies in the industry.

We are also recently supporting Hackathon development initiatives in the context of solving problems that impact society through data science techniques.

II – Interfaces with Basic Education

By training, the PPCIC was built in order to interact with basic education, since part of its teaching base also operates in secondary-technical education. In addition to teaching classes in high school technical education, PPCIC professors have also been actively guiding scientific initiation projects under the PIBIC-EM Program, offering scholarships from CNPq and CEFET/RJ itself. This activity, in addition to contributing to the training of students, also allows them to interact with undergraduate and graduate students, promoting the verticalization of teaching and awakening their investigative spirit. Also noteworthy is the interaction promoted by research aimed at teaching carried out in the Data and Applications Management line. The computational artifacts produced are intended to strengthen learning in both computer education and basic education. Still, actions to evaluate the result of the artifacts produced are in progress through interactions with public institutions of elementary and high school in the city of Rio de Janeiro. These actions have already taken place in several studies concluding courses and scientific articles with this bias. We highlight the latest scientific articles published on the theme:

  • Supporting the Learning of Evolution Theory Using an Educational Simulator. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 2019.
  • Evaluating the Complementarity of Communication Tools for Learning Platforms. In: CSEDU 2018 International Conference on Computer Supported Education, 2018
  • Orthographic Educational Game for Portuguese Language Countries. In: International Conference on Computer Supported Education, 2018
  • Control and Security System for Access to the Classroom Based on Facial Recognition. In: Latin American Informatics Conference, 2018.
  • ChildProtected: a game to prevent sexual violence against children and adolescents. In: Brazilian Symposium on Informatics in Education, 2018.
  • Discovering Sounds: a game to teach music in a playful way. In: Brazilian Symposium on Informatics in Education, 2018.
  • VITA – Estimating student satisfaction through Sentiment Analysis. In: Brazilian Symposium on Informatics in Education, v. 1, 2018.

All of these articles are linked to basic education, since they are applications that strengthen the learning of the contents covered and, at the same time, they are linked to Data Science, especially through the analysis of data from the evaluations of the produced artifacts.

The interaction expands with elementary education through partnerships with schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro. An example of this is the pilot project at the GEO (Ginásio Experimental Olímpico) in Santa Teresa, where PPCIC teachers are working, together with elementary school teachers, on teaching and learning robotics. Another example is the Girls in Robotics project, which encourages the participation and training of children and young people in the area of ​​technology with a focus on the female audience. A PPCIC teacher is working together with other CEFET / RJ teachers and with teachers from five public elementary schools in the Baixada Fluminense network in the development of theoretical-practical workshops with basic knowledge of robotics and programming. These actions promote greater social inclusion and at the same time serve as a motivating element for these students to consider Computing as a potential career to pursue studies in high school or undergraduate.