MAGAZINE Robot
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Where fiction comes alive with projects of a bionic hand and a piano-playing MAGAZINE robot PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL No. 1 • Annual issue in English/2014 The future has arrived with the newborn Nanopuc PHOTO: JOÃO MARCELO KETZER MARCELO JOÃO PHOTO: Bubbles of gas hydrate, the energy source for the future PUCRS opens the Institute of Petroleum and Natural Resources in partnership with Petrobras.to exploit Research energy sources such as gas hydrates and Black petroleummomentum gathers gold CONTENTS PRESIDENT Joaquim Clotet VICE PRESIDENT Evilázio Teixeira VICE PRESIDENT 20 FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Mágda Rodrigues da Cunha VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT Jorge Luis Nicolas Audy VICE PRESIDENT FOR EXTENSION AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS Sérgio Luiz Lessa de Gusmão VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE Paulo Roberto Girardello Franco HEAD OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS Ana Maria Walker Roig 24 30 EXECUTIVE EDITOR Magda Achutti REPORTERS Ana Paula Acauan Vanessa Mello 3 With the Readers – Towards the future 28 Interview – The culture of smiling PHOTOGRAPHERS Universities and knowledge society, Philosopher Pascal Bruckner talks Bruno Todeschini by Joaquim Clotet about the discourse of happiness Gilson Oliveira 4 Cover Story – PUCRS opens the Institute 29 Through the Campus – PUCRS will ENGLISH TRANSLATION of Petroleum and Natural Resources have an aeromovel line Flávia Westphalen A partnership with Petrobras The vehicle will go across Ipiranga Tiago Cattani Avenue from the Event Hall 8 Research – How do we make decisions? ENGLISH REVISION to the Sports Center Silvana Silveira Neurophilosophy Group investigates behavior in our daily activities and the social networks 30 Technology – INTERN Where fiction comes alive Juliana Marzanasco 10 Research – Nature as a Researchers design and build a bionic dimension of the sacred PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE hand and a piano-playing robot Analice Longaray Religious practices get closer Camila Paes Keppler to ecological issues and vice versa 34 Live this World – CIRCULATION Between Brazil and Germany 12 Science and Technology – The future has arrived Danielle Borges Diogo Joint programs with the University The recently created Multidisciplinary Center for of Osnabrück encourage faculty PRINTING Nanoscience and Micro-Nanotechnology (Nanopuc) Epecê-Gráfica and student exchange 17 Science and Technology – GRAPHIC DESIGN 35 Live this World – Investments in nanoscience PenseDesign Twice the teacher Central Laboratory for Microscopy Students from the School PUCRS MAGAZINE and Microanalysis has new of Letters have just returned from No. 1 – YEAR 1 – 2014 high-resolution microscopes a double-degree program, which took Produced by the Office of 18 Science and Technology – place at the University of Coimbra Communications of Pontifícia Latin America has its first transgenic goat 36 Radar Universidade Católica Created by Quatro G, a company from Tecnopuc do Rio Grande do Sul 38 Culture – Football glossary Avenida Ipiranga, 6681 20 Highlight – Excellence in graduate studies in three languages Prédio 1 – 2º andar PUCRS is among the five best private Content available in an app Sala 202.02 universities in the Country CEP 90619-900 39 Opinion – The practice of planning 23 Teaching – To learn English and Portuguese Porto Alegre – RS and identifying excellence Learning Objects motivate students Phone: ( 55 51) 3320-3503 Mágda Rodrigues da Cunha, Vice Fax: (55 51) 3320-3603 Teaching – Technological President for Academic Affairs [email protected] 24 innovation in the classroom www.pucrs.br/magazine Four professors received acknowledgment from Apple for activities with the LabsMóveis project 2 WITH THE READERS Towards the am pleased to present the futurefirst English PUCRS is also alert to the analysis OLIVEIRA GILSON PHOTO: edition of PUCRS magazine. At full and identification of new formats and I maturity – 36 years of continuous approaches for the undergraduate and circulation –, in 2014 this publication had graduate programs, aiming at providing great moments while focusing on its true students with interdisciplinary academic mission: articles which readers crave for. experience, focusing on the analysis And now, one more big step! On this English of problems and on the proposition of version, the challenge is to bring compelling solutions. They need to experience new articles, endowed with good resources, ways of learning, having research as good sources, and good insights to a wider an essential tool for the development audience, using all these elements to of autonomy and the acquisition of translate the large world of PUCRS. knowledge throughout life. They need to The current moment is characterized develop their ability to adapt to what is new. by constant changes aligned with the needs Otherwise, they will leave the University and accomplishments of today’s society. We already regarded as obsolete. live in the so-called Knowledge Society, in The provision of continuing education, which the role of universities is indisputable. with courses aligned with the demands PUCRS, in harmony with the advancements of society, becomes crucial in this new of the 21ST century, follows the path scenario. New methods and possibilities of innovation, which seeks quality and of teaching and learning must integrate excellence. Our Strategic Plan emphasizes the actions of universities, whose role internationalization, entrepreneurship is to create, transmit, and preserve the and interaction with society not only in knowledge already produced as well as technological areas, communication, and to innovate and break existing paradigms. health sciences, but also in several other Considering these and other aspects, fields. Human sciences, philosophy, and PUCRS has emerged among the leading theology, memorable tradition since the institutions of higher education in Brazil, origins of universities, support and follow meeting the purpose of contributing to the permanent dialog with the dynamic the social development. The excellence world of applied sciences and technology. in education and research has been An unquestionable aspect to face and confirmed by the rankings of the Ministry of to adapt to the future is the permanent Education, and by the Ministry of Science, education training of faculty and Technology and Innovation, which is researchers. In this sense, continuing focused on a clear and challenging vision education seminars have been offered in of the future, as well as on the fulfillment order to qualify professors and researchers of the University’s mission. to use updated teaching methodology and It is an honor to have the opportunity new research paradigms, such as online to get to our readers, who are far beyond education, OpenCourseWare, and the the walls of the University, to deliver wide range of learning resources currently this edition. I wish this magazine inspire available. you to know and visit PUCRS, a catholic, The internationalization of researchers, innovative and entrepreneurial University professors, and students is likewise pursuing excellence. essential, so that the university becomes open to the world, and the world, in turn, Joaquim Clotet gets closer to the university. President of PUCRS 3 COVER STORY PHOTO: GILSON OLIVEIRA PHOTO: Institute of Petroleum The opening, on November 26, even years have passed and much has happened. The Center of Excellence in Research and gives boost to the S Innovation in Petroleum, Mineral Resources and Carbon Storage (Cepac) first began with a focus on development of carbon sequestration, extended its activities, became a state-of-the-art benchmark in Brazil and abroad, and now opens an area four times larger (seven floors instead of the old two), in technologies in the Science and Technology Park. First associated with the Institute of the Environment (IMA), from November 26 Brazil on Cepac will be part of the Institute of Petroleum and Natural Resources (IPR). From 2007 to 2014, Cepac obtained more than BRL 60 million from Petrobras, its greatest partner, and currently has other three projects in progress, involving BRL 20 million. The establisment of IPR aims at enhancing research and high-complexity specialized service rendering in the fields of petroleum and gas, and ensuring the country is able to develop state- of-the-art technologies. “Several analyses need to be sent outside the country by the petroleum industry. We want to progress in terms of knowledge detection and perform increasingly sophisticated experiments,” IPR Director, Geologist João Marcelo Ketzer, says. According to him, given the importance of the Institute, it will be possible to broaden the horizons. He considers that, even if not being associated with IMA, IPR will keep environment protection in mind, however, with new emphasis on research related to the exploitation of natural resources. One of the focal points of IPR and Cepac is the study of gas hydrates, the energy source for the future. The team has carried out four maritime missions to the Cone of Rio Grande, in the south of the state, as part of Project Conegas 1. As ice, the substances are considered unconventional gas reserves, found on Gas hydrate: the energy source for the future 4 PUCRS opens the Institute of Petroleum the seabed at great depths. Resembling ice rocks, they have their structures exploration of a well is very expensive, we need tools stabilized by molecules of natural gas (methane, butane, propane, and carbon to anticipate what we can possibly find,” the director