Dr. Walter Jones, Air Force Institute of Technology director and chancellor, was an invited speaker at the Brazilian Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica’s convocation ceremony on 7 March. AFIT and the ITA share a similar mission to educate military and civilians in aerospace engineering. (Contributed photo)

Dr. Walter Jones, director and chancellor, Air Force Institute of Technology, was an invited speaker at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica’s (Aeronautics Institute of Technology) Aula Magna ceremony in São José dos Campos, Brazil on 7 March. The Aula Magna is a university’s convocation ceremony held at the beginning of the academic year to welcome the new class of students.

“It was a great honor for me to speak to the students and faculty at ITA,” said Jones. “I know we will find many areas of collaboration between AFIT and ITA – both in education and in research.”

The ITA is a similar university to AFIT with a mission to educate military and civilians in aerospace engineering. A public university, the ITA is linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Defense’s Air Force Command and located at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology.

Jones was very impressed with the high quality of students and faculty at ITA. “At both the undergraduate and the graduate levels, ITA is producing highly-trained scientists and engineers for the Brazilian military and for Brazilian industry. I was also thrilled and honored to tour the Embraer facility adjacent to the ITA campus,” he said.

The current relationship between the two schools includes a faculty exchange with an AFIT physics professor and an ITA operations research professor serving as visiting faculty at each institute. Future goals for the partnership include a student exchange opportunity.

An article by the Aeronautics Institute of Technology is posted below.

Aula Magna marks the beginning of the school year at ITA
The ceremony featured honors and awards

Posted: 2022-03-15 09:47:14

The Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), located in São José dos Campos (SP), held the Aula Magna on 03/07 which started the 2022 school year and made official the return of face-to-face classes for all courses, respecting the protocols previously defined security. The ceremony was attended by the Director and Chancellor of the United States Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Doctor Walter F. Jones, an educational institution that offers continuing professional education and advanced academic education for military and civilians.

The new Director General of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA), Major-Brigadier of the Air Maurício Augusto Silveira de Medeiros, presided over the ceremony accompanied by the Rector of ITA, Professor Anderson Ribeiro Correia. The DCTA and its various Institutes were represented by their General Officers, Commanders, Chiefs and Directors, in addition to the ITA Vice-Rector, Professor Jesuíno Takachi Tomita, ITA Pro-Rectors, other authorities and company representatives.

Awards
The engineers who stood out during graduation, in the class of 2021, received honors and awards as a way of recognizing their dedication and commitment to academic activities.

Doctor Jones congratulated all the awardees for having distinguished themselves in a high level institution like ITA. “Our missions are very similar. I also make my presentation here hoping to stimulate ideas that enhance and strengthen our partnership,” he said.

The Rector of ITA, Professor Dr. Anderson, thanked the guest of honor for participating and reiterated the similarities between the two institutions. “AFIT is located in Dayton, Ohio, home of the Wright brothers, aviation pioneers and prominent characters in the United States, just as ITA is located on the DCTA campus, in São José dos Campos-SP, imagined by Santos Dumont, a Brazilian protagonist in the aviation world. In addition, our Institutes offer similar courses and exchange agreements in the Master's and Doctoral modalities. Currently, one of our instructors is there, as well as an American instructor from AFIT is here with us and will stay for 3 years”, he highlighted.

Brigadier-Major Medeiros, at the end of the event, thanked Dr. Jones for his participation, praising the quality of his lecture, congratulated the students on winning the vacancy in the ITA school benches and ended with the message:";Participating in the Aula Magna of the Institution has a special value for me, because in my studies, in high school, at the Preparatory School of Cadets of the Air (EPCAR), I dreamed of studying at this engineering school, however, the discovery of aviation took me along other paths. But life has given me this opportunity to participate in ITA activities as Director General of the DCTA”, said the General Officer.