Escola Politécnica da UFRJ
The Polytechnic School of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese: Escola Politécnica da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), also called "Poli", founded in 1792, is the third oldest engineering school in the world and oldest in the Americas, with the Military Institute of Engineering ("Instituto Militar de Engenharia - IME") being one of the first institutions of higher education in Brazil. It is considered one of the best institutions of Latin America in engineering education. It is located in the UFRJ Center of Technology (CT), in the "Cidade Universitária" ("University City"), Rio de Janeiro. History . In 1792, Vice-Roi "D. José Luís de Castro, Count of Resende", signed the statutes approving the creation of Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortification and Drawing of Rio de Janeiro ("Real Academia de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho"), according to the model of the Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortification and Drawing of Lisbon ("Academia Real de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho"), starting the education of subjects that would become the base of engineering in Brazil. Later, on December 4, 1810, the Prince Regent (future King "John VI of Portugal") signed an act creating the Royal Military Academy ("Academia Real Militar") that would  succeed and replace the Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortification and Design, and from descend directly the Military Institute of Engineering and the famous Polythecnic School of Rio de Janeiro (Escola Politécnica do Rio de Janeiro), then named National School of Engineering (Escola Nacional de Engenharia), modified to School of Engineering (Escola de Engenharia) and, in October 2004, returning to be the Polythecnical School of UFRJ (Escola Politécnica da UFRJ), now with the name associated to UFRJ. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro was formed by the union of ancient unities of higher education in Rio de Janeiro: the National  Faculty of Law ("Faculdade Nacional de Direito"); the National Faculty of Medicine ("Faculdade Nacional de Medicina"), former Academy of Medicine and Surgery ("Academia de Medicina e Cirurgia"); and the Polytechnic School, each one with autonomy. Other unities have been added to these ones, such as National School of Fine Arts ("Escola Nacional de Belas Artes"), National Faculty of Philosophy ("Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia") and several courses that succeeded the pioneers. The University of Brazil ("Universidade do Brasil"), as Federal University of Rio de Janeiro was first named, represented a fundamental role in implementation of higher education in the country. Structure . The Polythechnic School - Poli, with "Alberto Luiz Coimbra" Institute - Graduate School and Research in Engineering - COPPE ("Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Engenharia - COPPE"), the School of Chemistry ("Escola de Química - EQ") and the "Professora Eloisa Mano" Institute of Macromolecules ("Instituto de Macromoléculas Professora Eloisa Mano - IMA") are the unities that constitute the Center of Technology ("Centro de Tecnologia - CT") of UFRJ. Having 222 high qualified professors, more than 200 Doctors, the Polytechnic School of UFRJ is, nowadays, the largest federal school of engineering education in Brazil. It excellence in quality of education can be represented  by relevance of several projects and researches developed in its laboratories, by academic awards collected by the professors and students and, chiefly, by the prestige and respect that Poli students have in labor market. The institutional relations between "Poli" and "COPPE" are a few complex. Although both are distinct unities, the former having as main mission the undergraduate education in engineering and the latter the graduate courses, both share more than 70% of professors, laboratories and facilities. All the undergraduate and graduate courses have professors of both institutions, however the administrative responsibility for undergraduate courses is of "Poli" and for  the graduate courses is of "COPPE". Poli is also subdivided in departments, which are the smallest administrative instances of UFRJ. Departments. Below, the twelve departments of "Poli" that are responsible for offer more than 600 subjects annually: Courses. The Polytechnic School offers thirteen undergraduate courses in Engineering: Partnerships. The Polytechnic School has partnerships with some of the most important research centers of Brazil: the Petrobras Research Center ("Centro de Pesquisas da Petrobras - CENPES"), the Eletrobras Research Center ("Centro de Pesquisas da Eletrobras - CEPEL"), the Research Center in Mineral Technology ("Centro de Pesquisa em Tecnologia Mineral - CETEM") and the Institute of  Nuclear Engineering ("Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear"). All these centers provide to Poli students training, laboratories and internships.