Piracicaba is a city located in the Brazilian state of . The population is 391,449 (2015 est.) in an area of 1378.07 km². It is at an elevation of 547 m above sea level. The place name comes from a word in the “Tupi” language that means place where the fish stops. The name arises from the fact that the waterfalls of the Piracicaba River, which bisects the city, is a point at which "piracema" - fish swimming upstream to reproduce. Larger fish species such as the “dourados” can still be observed.

Aerial view of the Piracicaba city

Piracicaba is home to the oldest agricultural university in , the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture of the University of São Paulo. Founded in 1901, the school is located on a farm with a large collection of trees and plants. Piracicaba is famous for sugarcane plantations, traditional “cachaça” production, and traditional music. The harvest of sugarcane produces many products, including sugar, oil, and ethanol. Copersucar, a large company that has a center of research on genetic improvement of sugarcane participates in this growing industry. Another characteristic economic feature is the presence of large industries, where the main ones are Caterpillar, ArcelorMittal, and Hyundai. Temperatures through the year vary from 37.5° Celsius maximum to 16.0° Celsius minimum, and Piracicaba experiences annual rainfall of 123 centimeters.

Waterfalls of the Piracicaba River

The Central Mill is one of the tourist attractions of Piracicaba. The Piracicaba Central Mill, located on the banks of the Piracicaba River, was built by Estêvão Ribeiro de Sousa Resende, the Baron de Rezende, in 1881, with the aim of replacing slave labor by the mechanization. The Central Mill is one of the most beautiful architectural settings in the State of São Paulo and, perhaps, Brazil, known for inspiring poets, artists, architects, journalists, scientific researchers, tourists, lovers of history and culture. It is also a significant historical site of the urban evolution of Piracicaba. Its green area is 80 thousand square meters and the built area occupies 12 thousand square meters.

The Central Mill: one of the tourist attractions of Piracicaba

Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ) is located at the Luiz de Queiroz Campus in the city of Piracicaba, and is currently considered a Center of Excellence for Undergraduate and Graduate programs in Agricultural, Environmental, Biological and Applied Social Sciences, acknowledged for its outstanding scientific and technical performance. Its academic community is comprised of 800 faculty and staff members along with nearly 3,400 undergraduate and graduate students. Its total area (3,825.4 hectares) corresponds to 50% of the total area of USP. ESALQ offers 7 undergraduate programs and15 graduate programs (one international), in addition to one inter-institutional and two inter-unit programs, in its 12 departments and more than 130 laboratories. It houses a reference library in Agricultural Sciences in Latin America, 4 experimental stations located in , , and Piracicaba – “Areão” Experimental Station, as well as an enterprise incubator, ESALQTec.

Panoramic view of the main building - Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ)

ESALQ has graduated 15,000 students. It is the first Brazilian higher education institution to graduate more than 11,000 Agricultural Engineering. ESALQ is a part of the international scene due to agreements with foreign institutions, exchanging students and faculty members, and offering double degree programs in Agriculture and in Food Science with French institutions. The orange flamboyant can be found in various parts of the campus. It is the tree symbol of ESALQ and flowers in the month of November.

Orange flamboyant next to the main building of ESALQ The Image Analysis Laboratory of the Department of Crop Science is the first laboratory for seed evaluation using image analysis techniques in Brazil. It was built and equipped with resources of FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation), and researches have been carried out since 2001. Almost 100 scientific papers have already been published involving seed and seedlings images since its inauguration.

Outside and inside views of the Image Analysis Laboratory, Department of Crop Science, ESALQ/USP