Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

The university was created in 1941 by the Society of Jesus to emphasize humanistic values in the pursuit of knowledge. PUC-Rio has 12,000 undergraduate students, 2,500 graduate students, and 4,000 extension students. In 2009 it ranked first among 2,252 higher education institutions in Brazil on ENADE, a benchmark exercise run by the Brazilian Ministry of Education.

In 2023, it was evaluated by THE Times Higher Education World University Rankings in several areas. In the area of Computer Science, PUC-Rio reached first place overall in the country, also obtaining the Brazilian leadership in the Partnership with Industry indicator. In the area of physical sciences, the university positioned itself as the national leader in the Partnership with Industry and Internationalization indicators, occupying the third position overall in the country. In the area of social sciences, PUC-Rio achieved the leadership in Internationalization among Brazilian universities.

In 2024, PUC-Rio was considered the best private institution in the country, and the 5th best overall (among public and private) by the QS World University Rankings.

PUC-Rio has highly accredited faculties in law, engineering, computer science, psychology, economics, business, and international relations. It fosters cultural diversity in its student body. It has participated in exchange programs with Harvard, Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Brown University as well as European universities, with hundreds of students participating each year.

Location

PUC-Rio is located in Gávea in the south of Rio, at the edge of Tijuca National Forest. The campus was once a coffee farm. A creek crossed by three bridges runs through the campus. Several city bus lines pass the university, which is near the suburban neighborhoods of Leblon, Ipanema, Jardim Botânico, and Lagoa. The Botanical Gardens and Leblon beach are within walking distance to the university.

Research

As mentioned before, the Lua programming language was developed by Roberto Ierusalimschy, Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo, and Waldemar Celes, members of the Computer Graphics Technology Group at PUC-Rio, beginning in 1993.

The Tecgraf Institute for Technical and Scientific Software Development, founded in 1987, was created as a laboratory of the PUC-Rio Department of Information Technology, the result of a partnership between PUC-Rio and Petrobras, with the goal of developing computer graphics projects.

Over the course of its development, the Institute has consolidated its work by expanding its operations to all areas of Petrobras, including seismic, reservoir, automation, environment and logistics. In 2013, Tecgraf became an institute of PUC-Rio.