Escola Politécnica da UFRJ

The Polytechnic School of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese: Escola Politécnica da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), also called "Poli", founded in 1792, is the third oldest engineering school in the world and oldest in the Americas, with the Military Institute of Engineering (Instituto Militar de Engenharia - IME) being one of the first institutions of higher education in Brazil. It is considered one of the best institutions of Latin America in engineering education. It is located in the UFRJ Center of Technology (CT), in the Cidade Universitária ("University City"), Rio de Janeiro.

In 1792, Vice-Roi D. José Luís de Castro, Count of Resende, signed the statutes approving the creation of Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortification and Drawing of Rio de Janeiro (Real Academia de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho), according to the model of the Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortification and Drawing of Lisbon (Academia Real de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho), starting the education of subjects that would become the base of engineering in Brazil.

Later, on December 4, 1810, the Prince Regent (future King John VI of Portugal) signed an act creating the Royal Military Academy (Academia Real Militar) that would succeed and replace the Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortification and Design, and from descend directly the Military Institute of Engineering and the famous Polythecnic School of Rio de Janeiro (Escola Politécnica do Rio de Janeiro), then named National School of Engineering (Escola Nacional de Engenharia), modified to School of Engineering (Escola de Engenharia) and, in October 2004, returning to be the Polythecnical School of UFRJ (Escola Politécnica da UFRJ), now with the name associated to UFRJ.

The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro was formed by the union of ancient unities of higher education in Rio de Janeiro: the National Faculty of Law (Faculdade Nacional de Direito); the National Faculty of Medicine (Faculdade Nacional de Medicina), former Academy of Medicine and Surgery (Academia de Medicina e Cirurgia); and the Polytechnic School, each one with autonomy. Other unities have been added to theses ones, such as National School of Fine Arts (Escola Nacional de Belas Artes), National Faculty of Philosophy (Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia) and several courses that succeeded the pioneers. The University of Brazil (Universidade do Brasil), as Federal University of Rio de Janeiro was first named, represented a fundamental role in implementation of higher education in the country.

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