Research centers and labs

The physical, computational, and administrative infrastructure is continuously being updated. With resources from the registrations of the 2018 symposium, primarily due to the effective participation of students in the organization, funds were secured for the acquisition of infrastructure that includes a 55-inch TV/monitor for presentations and rehearsals, as well as a communal space in the students’ room. In 2020, resources funded through projects from the Remote Sensing Center (CSR) equipped a videoconference room with the latest technology for presentations, including a smart TV and a digital touchscreen board. In addition to these common spaces exclusively used by faculty and students of the PPG-AMSA, the program has 10 associated laboratories, whose infrastructure is described below:

Centre for Remote Sensing (CSR)
An infrastructure that develops research and applications in Environmental Modeling with expertise in Geoprocessing, Digital Cartography, and Environmental Modeling, particularly concerning land use dynamics, forest fire spread, and biodiversity conservation. This center has computational tools for geoprocessing and environmental modeling, including the DINAMICA EGO software developed by the center itself. CSR currently features a multi-user high-performance processing station with 32 processors, 64 megabytes of RAM, and 50 terabytes of storage. CSR provides the entire community with a repository of geospatial data on its map server (https://maps.csr.ufmg.br/).

Laboratory of Territorial Studies (LESTE)
A research space that supports various works in the fields of Geography, spatial analysis, and socioeconomic studies. Among the topics addressed, it is important to highlight the consistent presence of Historical Cartography and areas of knowledge associated with Regional Analysis, Population and Space, Urban Networks, and Geopolitics. The laboratory has microdata from various public surveys (Demographic Censuses, National Household Sample Surveys, Annual Social Information Relations), as well as cartographic databases acquired from IBGE and proprietary databases resulting from recent research. Currently, LESTE has seven microcomputers, two laptops, a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a scanner, a projector, and teaching support equipment. The most commonly used executable programs include SPSS, ArcGIS, MapInfo, MicroStation, Adobe Photoshop, among others.

Geomorphology Laboratory
The Geomorphology Laboratory aims to conduct research related to soils and geomorphology. Analyses of the physical properties of soil, such as texture, pH, electrical conductivity, particle density, and water quality analysis, are carried out. The laboratory supports teaching, research, and extension activities for undergraduate and graduate students. In conjunction with the Soil and Environment Laboratory, the Geomorphology Laboratory conducts soil and water analyses from rural properties directly impacted by the disaster of the Fundão dam rupture in Mariana along the Doce River basin.

Soil and Environment Laboratory
An infrastructure that conducts analyses related to soil structure and soil water, including density, aggregate stability, soil water retention curve, macroporosity, microporosity, liquidity limit, and soil micromorphology. The laboratory develops projects in partnership with EPAMIG (Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company), EMBRAPA SOILS, and EMATER-MG (Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of the State of Minas Gerais).

Surveying Laboratory
A vital infrastructure supporting educational activities, equipped with surveying and geodesy equipment that also provides support for research and extension activities. The laboratory has surveying instruments such as total stations, levels, GNSS receivers, drones/UAVs, and supporting materials such as radio transmitters. The Surveying Laboratory also includes computers and software for processing survey data, including aerial photogrammetric processing and three-dimensional modeling of drone images.

Cartographic Practices and Geoprocessing Laboratory
An infrastructure with two rooms: one primarily for research and another primarily for teaching. The teaching room is equipped with 36 networked computers and software for students, along with multimedia resources for classes. The research room has 15 networked computers and software available for students, faculty, and researchers in general. Most of the practices for the PPG-AMSA courses are conducted in this laboratory, whose maintenance has been funded by research and extension project resources from the PPG-AMSA faculty. The frequently used software includes ArcGIS, QGIS, ENVI, DINAMICA EGO, SPRING, R, GPS TrackMaker, MicroStation, and IDRISI.

Transportation Research and Environmental Modeling (TREM)
Its computational infrastructure includes two high-capacity workstations installed on-site and four laptops for remote access for scholarship students, as well as printers and tables/workstations for five students. Since its establishment three years ago, TREM has supported research projects (GIZ 2017, TCU 2018, and ANAC 2020) and extension projects (VLI 2017, Environment/UFLA 2019) with ongoing funding acquisition and equipment and scholarship maintenance, particularly highlighting the methodology for modeling the economic, technical, and environmental feasibility of transportation corridors.

Environmental Services Management Laboratory (LAGESA)
Founded in 2012, LAGESA has a team of 10 researchers from diverse academic backgrounds who conduct studies in environmental management. In line with its mission to promote greater scientific participation in environmental policy decisions in Brazil, the laboratory currently develops studies recognized in the public sphere and cultivates alliances with organizations such as the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change and the Forest Code Observatory. LAGESA has been a strong support point for the development of research and international visibility of the PPG-AMSA, resulting from the program’s interaction, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity.

Pattern Recognition and Earth Observation (PATREO)
Integrates academic research in the field of computer vision by faculty and PhD, master’s, and undergraduate students. Its infrastructure currently includes: storage and backup servers (88 TB capacity); processing servers with virtualization on multiple processors (152 cores); high RAM capacity (1.14 TB); and heavy processing servers (12 GPUs – Geforce GTX Titan X). PATREO conducts research on topics related to machine learning, image processing, and computer vision, primarily focusing on applications for monitoring the Earth’s surface, which requires processing remote sensing images.

Laboratory in Analysis and Modeling Applied to Health
An infrastructure established in 2020, even during the pandemic, through resources from a project approved under the CAPES/EPIDEMIAS-COVID 19 notice. The project funded the creation of a laboratory and the acquisition of equipment (82 thousand reais), including a server (processing station worth 22 thousand reais and five computers worth 66 thousand reais), in addition to all permanent equipment as shown in the attached Figure 2 (Supplementary Material document).

Students of the PPG-AMSA, as members of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, have access to the university’s information technology resources, which include email accounts, electronic signatures, and remote access for laptops and mobile devices. In addition to the applications available in the various laboratories already presented, PPG-AMSA students also have access to the LCC-CENAPAD, a center for providing services and developing information technology projects for research and teaching (https://www.lcc.ufmg.br/index.php/softwares-licenciados). Among the frequently requested applications are SPSS and MATLAB.

Students and faculty of PPG-AMSA have access to the computing and learning resources of CAED (Center for Distance Education Support) at UFMG, which allows, for example, access to videoconference rooms (https://virtual.ufmg.br/caed/). Similarly, the computational models used in PPG-AMSA research can access the supercomputer with 848 processors and a 40-terabyte hard drive, installed at the regional center of the National High-Performance Computing System (Sinapad) of the Ministry of Science and Technology, linked to the Scientific Computing Laboratory (LCC) of ICEx. However, its use is restricted and scheduled, and must meet specific criteria.

In PPG-AMSA, fieldwork activities and technical visits essential for the development of research interests of its faculty and students receive logistical support from vehicles that are part of the collection of the Institute of Geosciences (IGC/UFMG). These vehicles are also systematically used for fieldwork conducted in the context of courses that are part of the program’s curriculum at both the master’s and doctoral levels.