São Carlos is located 230 km from the City of São Paulo. Founded in 1857, its history is marked by the cultivation of coffee. The historic farms located in the rural area are witnesses from that period.
The city presented an early vocation for education and technological research. In 1953 a campus from the University of São Paulo (USP) was received and in 1970 the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) was installed. These public institutions of education and research were followed by the University Center UNICEP (1972) and Embrapa (1984), a renowned agricultural research center.
Today there are about 25 thousand students, including undergraduate and graduate students, in a city of 245 thousand inhabitants.
In addition to research in university centers, a high-tech industrial pole was developed, which gave the city the titles of “Capital of Knowledge” and “Capital of Technology”.