The Transportation Engineering Program (PET, in Portuguese) is one of the thirteen Graduate programs in Engineering of Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research (COPPE) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), considered the largest engineering teaching and research center in Latin America.

Currently, 11 full professors - all PhDs with exclusive dedication to the University - and 2 collaborating professors work in the Program, forming masters and doctors in Transportation Engineering, working by combining theoretical and applied research, with advisory activities demanded by government agencies and society. This encourages interaction with the Brazilian reality and contributes to the development of the country.

The interdisciplinary vocation and nature of our Program manifested since its creation, in the 1970s, made its research groups expand.

The more than 500 master's dissertations and 100 doctorate theses, the large number of scientific papers published in national and international journals or presented in congresses, the various books produced, the technical reports, and the consultancy projects consolidate theGraduate Program in Transportation Engineering, in a prominent position in the production and spread of technical and scientific knowledge in the scientific and professional fields. This is evidenced by the successive evaluations of CAPES(Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) that have classified PET at level 5, the highest achieved among the graduate courses in Transportation Engineering in the country, serving as a stimulus for the constant improvement and expansion of its teaching, research and extension activities.

In fact, the wide range of possibilities that open up as a result of its insertion, as an interdisciplinary field between various areas of graduate studies inEngineering, and its strong integration with society, allow PET to offer answers to varied demands from the movement of people and cargo.

The Courses

PET offers two-year Master’s courses (M.Sc.) and four-year doctorate courses (D.Sc.), aimed at training professionals to work in the academic and research areas. However, the high level of this training has opened ample opportunities for placement in the labor market, in which the knowledge received confers competence to carry out activities that go beyond, such as those related to scientific and technological development, to the management of transport in organizations and those required by companies in the most varied sectors.

Support Infrastructure

The Program has technical and administrative infrastructural support for all activities developed during the courses and in carrying out research and extension projects. Beyond the classrooms equipped with modern image, audio and video projection resources, there are shared spaces for studying and working, with access to internet and intranet, where bibliography is available. Bibliography available at intranet includes all theses and dissertations in digital formats, didactic materials complementary to courses and computational software packages in academic versions.

Research lines and Professors 

In the scope of PET, the development of research is concentrated in a single and large area, that of Transportation Engineering, which is composed of four Research Lines: Cities and Mobility, Transport Management and Operation, Logistics and Sustainable Transport.