We have investigated the role of universities in the articulation between the local and the global context and the consequences that this articulation may cause on local development. The development was approached from the perspective of the center-periphery structure of the world economic system and from the peculiarities of underdevelopment process, which allowed us to perceive that, in addition to the mobilization of endogenous forces, the global scenario contextualization must also be considered. The scientific and technological production of the universities was represented by a specific field of knowledge - Computer Science - organized in Graduate Programs in Computer Science in the Northeast of Brazil. Through the analysis of internationalization and local insertion categories, different articulations have been found, and internationalization has pointed out as the most intense of the categories. Programs in which both categories were very intense have allowed new possibilities for action and interference in local development. In the states where they are present, the information technology sector has become an important productive segment, starting from researchers' initiatives in the field of local power.