- Author
- Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnologicas
- Coporate
- Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnologicas, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Report
- IPT Publication 1825
- Book or Conf
- Nine Decades of Technological Development, 65 p., 1990
- Keywords
- research facilities | technology utilization | brazil
- Abstract
- The Institute for Technological Research (IPT) began nine decades ago as the Strength of Materials Bureau of the recently created Polytechnic School of Sao Paulo. Its evolution has followed closely the contemporary history of Brazil, sometimes anticipating the changes, sometimes adapting to them, but never lagging behind. The very figure of Paula Souza, the first director of the School and founder of the Bureau, typifies this trait. He was a man of wide-ranging concerns, being among the few citizens of Sao Paulo who pressed for the abolition of slavery, the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republican regime. The Republic, of which Paula Souza was one of the first ministers, was based on an agricultural economy - that of coffee. This required the construction and maintenace of railroads and ports and an increase in the urbvan infra-structure. Consequently there was a demand for construction, and therefore a need for a center for investigation of the materials used. Paula Souza, then, was also instrumental in building up a national engineering research capability.