CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT's School of Engineering and the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) in São Paulo, Brazil, have agreed to explore a potential future collaboration.

School of Engineering Dean Ian A. Waitz and ITA Rector Carlos Américo Pacheco will sign a letter of intent today, committing to work together over the next six months to evaluate the feasibility of such a relationship.

ITA, founded with MIT's help in 1950, ranks among Brazil's top technical universities. A strategic partnership would help ITA through a period of anticipated growth, including the conception, design and creation of a planned Innovation Center.

The two organizations will examine a collaboration that might include exchange of students, professors and researchers; joint research; and development of new educational programs. A focused collaboration between ITA and the School of Engineering might initially involve MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and other educational and innovation programs within the School of Engineering, with broader opportunities for research focus areas to be the topic of discussions over the next six months.


Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology