Universidade Federal do Ceará
Mestrado e Doutorado em Ciências da Computação

In 1995, when the MS program received its first group of graduate students, the faculty consisted of researchers from different public institutions in the State of Ceará. This inclusive and diverse environment aimed at fostering scientific and technological development to the field of computing in the whole State of Ceará. Therefore, with this outreaching vision, our graduate program served not only as a center for the dissemination of scientific knowledge, but also as a center for attracting, aggregating and training a young generation of highly talented Ph.D. professionals in the State of Ceará.

The program has always considered the pursuance of high quality work, aligned with international standards, as one of its main pillars. Because of that, the program’s research areas were carefully chosen from the outset in order to unite and to exploit the scientific and innovative potentials of its researchers, while encompassing the most relevant research areas in Computer Science.

The faculty also considered the synergy between basic research and theoretical knowledge on one side and technical skill and application development on the other side, in order to prepare professionals with the broad knowledge required by a field that is a balanced mix of science and engineering.

Continuing with its mission, MDCC took an important step forward when it started its doctorate program in 2005. In fact, that represented a watershed for computer science in Ceará.

As evidence of the success of its initial strategy of promoting the field of computer science in the State of Ceará, three new graduate programs were created in the following Universities: UNIFOR, UECE and IFCE. The faculty of these programs has a significant number of MDCC graduates. Furthermore, many of our graduates work in renowned public and private institutions in the country.

Throughout the state of Ceará, the MDCC contribution is markedly strong, especially when one looks at the number of its former students acting as faculty in undergraduate programs in computer science and related areas in several campuses of UFC in the state: the undergraduate program of Computing Engineering in the city of Sobral; the undergraduate programs of Information Systems, Computer Networks, Computer Science and Software Engineering in the city of Quixadá; and the undergraduate programs of the UFC Virtual Institute in the city of Fortaleza.

In 2013, after the CAPES triennial evaluation (2010-2012), MDCC was considered a graduate program Level 5 (Brazilian ranking of evaluated programs). That score represents the recognition of excellence by the scientific community of Brazil, and it is a reward for the hard and serious work conducted by the body of people who make our graduate program: faculty, research collaborators, students and administrative staff.

The faculty and the graduate students of MDCC have become a very productive group. That productivity is measured, not only by the number of important national and international scientific papers, but also by a strong fund-raising capacity, evidenced through numerous relevant projects which are funded by the government and industry. Those activities reflect one of our main objectives of combining scientific excellence with social relevance.

From the milestone represented by its classification as a Level 5 program, MDCC is geared towards the strengthening of its competences and the consolidation of its maturity. In that direction, we are laying out a strategic plan that will help the group to reach, in the short run, new, and more challenging objectives such as the international recognition and the leadership in conducting large national projects. However, we intend to do all that with competence, seriousness and firm steps, and, most importantly, by maintaining our original principles and values, which, we believe, helped us to come this far as a group. Those principles include the pursuit of excellence while fostering the spirit of solidarity and mutual respect among members of the group, and always seeking the best interest of developing science and technology for the benefit of Ceará and Brazil.