GERALDO of YDUQS [a Professional and management development training company], Brazil

This presentation offers a personal perspective on how engineering education has evolved alongside the democratization of digital technologies. Geraldo Gurgel draws from decades of experience — from leading R&D&I projects in advanced inertial navigation and strategic systems for defense sector applications, to coordinating large-scale digital learning programs — to share reflections that connect past technological frontiers to today’s classrooms.

Rather than a conventional lecture, this talk invites participants into a series of real-world insights, such as transitions in how engineers are trained and lessons learned from forming thousands of students in Brazil and reflecting on broader global educational trends. The goal is to explore how education, once limited by physical presence and technical access, now leverages tools that were once exclusive to defense labs — and how this shift impacts what it means to “form an engineer” in a connected, digital world.

Biography:

Geraldo Gurgel is an electrical engineer, graduated from the Military Institute of Engineering (IME-RJ), with a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ), and over 30 years of experience in engineering education and applied R&D&I. Earlier in his career, he served as a senior officer at the Brazilian Army’s Technological Center (CTEx), where he led strategic projects involving guidance systems, inertial sensors, unmanned vehicles, and other critical technologies developed at the edge of innovation.

In parallel with his technical work, Geraldo has contributed to academic planning, curriculum development, and performance measurement models in higher education. Over the past decades, he has been directly involved in the education of more than 30,000 engineering students, both in on-campus and large-scale digital learning environments. He currently works with digital education strategies at YDUQS [a Professional and management development training company], one of Latin America’s largest educational groups, and is a member of IMEKO TC17 – Technical Committee on Measurement in Robotics.

Address:Rio de Janeiro, Brazil