The IFPE is one of the oldest and most traditional among the Federal Institutes, it has 9 campuses and offers Technical, undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as researches and scientific production.

The IFPE was founded on September 23, 1909, when the former Brazilian president Nilo Peçanha signed the Decree Nº 7.566,[1] creating the Escolas de Aprendizes e Artífices (Craftsmen and Apprentices's Schools) making it the oldest federal institute in Brazil.

[2] Most of those names were related to its reason to exist: Give an industrial education with high standards for Pernambuco's people, specially the less fortunate.

In 1975, the IFPE suffered its biggest disaster: a huge flooding hit Recife,[3] leaving two thirds of the city underwater.

This neighborhood is the most education-centered in Recife: many education-oriented organizations are hosted there: the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), the Pernambuco Federal Institute of Technology (ITEP), the Regional Center of Nuclear Science (CRCN), the Superintendence for the Northeast Development (Sudene), and the Recife Military School (CMR).