International Partnerships

The main international partnerships established by PPGEM in the last 10 years are provided below: 

 1) Bilateral academic cooperation agreement with the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität), through the Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Production Management (Fertigungstechnik und Betriebsorganisation Kaiserslauter - FBK), belonging to the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany.

2) Cooperation and exchange with the Faculty of Engineering of Porto (Portugal): the international cooperation agreement signed between the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and the University of Porto in Portugal, enabled the mobility of postgraduate students to undertake a sandwich period at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). This culminated in the strengthening of the research activities developed and resulted in joint publications in international journals. The cooperation was established between the Postgraduate Program in Mechanical Engineering (PPGEM) of UFRN and the Doctoral Program in Mechanical Engineering (PRODEM) of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). The research activities currently being developed aim to improve the models for predicting the fatigue life of composite and metallic materials, and to understand the mechanisms involved in the damage. Finally, the bilateral international cooperation between PPGEM and PRODEM aims to improve the training of human resources in this field of research by both universities, adding scientific values capable of expanding the generation of scientific and technological research. As a result of this partnership, professors Dr. Raimundo Carlos Silverio Freire Júnior, Dr. José António Fonseca de Oliveira Correia and Dr. Abílio Manuel Pinho de Jesus defended a doctoral thesis and published 5 articles in journals.

3) Partnership with Automotive Technologies Program, TOBB Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Karabuk University, Turkey: studies of exergy, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analysis in diesel engines with additives were carried out by Professor Dr. Cuneyt Uysal (cuneytuysal@karabuk.edu.tr) with Professor Dr. Eduardo Cidade. As a result of the partnership, an article entitled: Exergy, exergoeconomic, life cycle, and exergoenvironmental assessments for an engine fueled by diesel–ethanol blends with aluminum oxide and titanium dioxide additive nanoparticles was published.

4) Partnership with the Center for Research in Technology and Environment at Clausthal University (Clausthaler Umwelttechnik Forschungszentrum), in Germany, from which a joint research project was developed, approved in 2019 by the Client II program, with unilateral funding from the German Ministry of Education (BMBF). Since the beginning of the project, the German team has already made over 10 technical visits to UFRN for deep exploration of sheelite residue deposits in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, with the equipment expected to be donated to UFRN.

5) Partnership with the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec/Canada) through the Laboratoire des Technologies de la Biomasse, since 2019, developing research in the field of valorization of different sources of residual carbon, in the area of biofuels from the decomposition of biomass, methanization of industrial waste, new processing processes for the maple syrup industry, all related to the area of environment and renewable energy. Currently, a master's student from PPGEM is developing work related to the theme, supervised by Prof. Anderson Clayton Alves de Melo and co-supervised by Prof. Jean-Michel Lavoie, from the aforementioned university.

6) Partnership with the Mechanical Engineering Faculty at Florida State University (FSU): research conducted with this university was in the area of exergy and exergoenvironmental analysis with Professor Dr. Eduardo Cidade of PPGEM/UFRN and Prof. PhD. Juan C. Ordonez (ordonez@eng.famu.fsu.edu). As a result of the partnership, an article entitled: Energy, Exergy, Entropy Generation Minimization, and Exergoenvironmental Analyses of Energy Systems-A Mini-Review was published.

7) Partnership with the Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Production Management at the University of Kaiserslautern (Fertigungstechnik und Betriebsorganisation Kaiserslautern), in Germany. Through this partnership, a joint research project was developed and approved in 2019 by CAPES/DFG, within the scope of the Collaborative Research Initiative Program (PIPC). In 2025 a new project within the same partnership was approved.

8) Cooperation with the University of Arveiro, the University of Dublin and the University of Pakistan: professors Dr. Thércio Henrique de Carvalho Costa and Dr. Michelle Cerqueira Feitor have cooperation with these universities, with joint publications in the area of plasma and with the first going as a visiting professor to the University of Dublin, in 2024, through the PRINT/CAPES project.

 9) Cooperation with Imperial College London (ICL), through the research project “Green lubricants in a nitrogen atmosphere - a scientific route towards the technological viability of green lubricants”, coordinated by Professor Henara Lillian Costa Murray from this institution and Professor Salete Martins Alves from PPGEM/UFRN as a member, in addition to students from both institutions involved in the project.

10) Prof. José Daniel has been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University since 2008 and has researched with professors linked to this university with publications in the area of Double-Double laminates and self-repairing composites.

National Cooperation

In addition to international partnerships, PPGEM faculty members maintain several academic partnerships with other national institutions, many of which are due to the affinity in research work among faculty members. In these partnerships, some students undertake internships at other institutions to develop part of their dissertation and thesis projects. These partnerships can result in research projects with external funding and joint publications. The main partnerships include:

1) Cooperation and Exchange with UnB in the Laboratory of Fatigue and Structural Integrity of Cables: having two published theses, one of them written by a student of UnB (Mielle Silva Pestana) and the other by a student of PPGEM/UFRN (Eduardo Cezar Bezerra Câmara), both of them dealt with the theme of fatigue in power transmission cables, with four publications in journals (in the International Journal of Fatigue and in Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures). Currently, there are three students at UnB who develop work with two of the professors of PPGEM/UFRN, with at least three more publications in the journals mentioned above and also in Tribology International. In addition, there is a partnership between HEIs (UFRN and UnB) and private institutions in the project “Machine Learning and multiaxial fatigue for conductor cables: Technologies and device for monitoring and calculating the durability of transmission lines” involving professors from PPGEM and UnB.

2) Partnership with UFCG in the Equipment Design Laboratory: joint work was carried out in the area of impact and this partnership has resulted in four theses, one dissertation and five articles published in journals. Among the journals are the Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design, the Journal of Composite Materials and the Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, all in the area of impact.

3) The partnership with the Nanomaterials Preparation Laboratory of the Physics Institute of UFF is a result of a research project supported by CNPQ for the development of biolubricants with amorphous carbon nanoparticles. Professor Salete Martins Alves also completed an internship at the aforementioned laboratory.

4) Procad-Defesa – National Development in Aspirated Hypersonic Propulsion with a focus on access to Space and Defense. Project funded by CAPES involving several institutions, namely: UFRN, ITA, USP, IEAv among others.

5) Partnership with INCT CT-Trib: The National Institute of Science and Technology for Green Tribology Aimed at Energy Transition (CT-Trib) is made up of researchers from 8 federal universities (FURG, UFPEL, UFSC, UTFPR, USP, UFES, UFU and UFRN) who work in the areas of: tribology, energy transition, biofuels, mobility, materials science, chemistry, surface engineering and the environment. CT-Trib's mission is to produce science, technology and innovation, train human resources and transfer knowledge in the area of green tribology and energy transition for the development of the business and public sector, and of the entire Brazilian society. Currently, PPGEM professors Raphael Araujo Cardo, Salete Martins Alves and Raimundo Carlos S Freire Júnior are part of INCT.

6) Cooperation and exchange with the Center for Alternative and Renewable Energies of the Federal University of Paraíba (CEAR/UFPB): the research carried out encompasses the area of Exergy, exergoeconomics, exergoenvironmental and life cycle assessment, where the main contact is Professor PhD Monica Carvalho (monica@cear.ufpb.br), with the publication of articles in journals and at conferences, panels, coordination of conferences (CERES 2020) and exchange of students between both institutions.

7) Cooperation in the area of plasma with UFPI, UFSCar/SP, USP/SP and UDESC/SC: Professor Michelle Feitor from our program has cooperation with professors Dr. Rômulo Ribeiro Magalhães de Sousa (UFPI), Dr. Luciana Sgarbi Rossino (FATEC UFSCar), Dr. Luis Cesar Fontana da (UDESC/SC) and Dr. Jaime Pinto Ortiz (USP/SP) with several joint publications.