Por que Engenharia? | From land to sea: it all starts with the soil
Planeta COPPE / Civil Engineering / Institutional News / News
Date: 17/08/2026

What do the subway, Cidade do Rock, the Rio-Niterói Bridge, and the pre-salt layer have in common? In the next issue of Por que Engenharia? (Why Engineering?), you’ll discover how civil engineering makes it possible to build where it seems impossible. Professor Márcio Almeida and the team at the Multi-User Laboratory for Centrifugal Modeling (LM²C), part of the Civil Engineering Program at Coppe/UFRJ, will demonstrate how soil analysis is essential to ensuring the safety, stability, and performance of construction projects on land and at sea.
Por que Engenharia? is a community outreach event organized by Coppe/UFRJ that invites high school students and anyone interested in science, technology, and innovation to get an up-close look at the impact of engineering on society. Come talk with researchers, discover amazing projects, and explore the various career opportunities in the field.
In his presentation, Professor Márcio Almeida will discuss the diversity of engineering—at Coppe alone, there are 13 graduate programs in engineering—the various fields in which civil engineers work, the importance of the profession to society, geotechnical engineering, and the need to understand the behavior of soils and rocks. He will also demonstrate how geotechnical centrifuge modeling is applied to projects on land and at sea, making it possible to transform challenging environments into safe and viable infrastructure projects.
Throughout the event, issues and solutions related to soil behavior will be presented, with concrete examples such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy; ground subsidence in Maceió; the leaning buildings in Santos (SP); and notable cases in Rio de Janeiro, such as Cidade do Rock and Vila do Pan.
The LM²C team prepared a dynamic and interactive presentation, featuring demonstrations and activities that bridge the gap between theory and practice and show, in an accessible way, how civil engineering tackles some of the biggest challenges in the construction of major projects.
📅 August 19th | 🕙 10 a.m.
📍 Alberto Luiz Coimbra Auditorium – Room G-122 – UFRJ Technology Center
Register for free on Sympla and secure your spot!
