IMPA 70 years: laboratories conduct innovative research
Maira Gama
Over the past 70 years, IMPA has expanded its teaching and research activities, gaining international relevance. This has been accompanied by advancements in the institute's infrastructure, which has gradually gained space and modernized to invest in new areas. Created in 1952, IMPA initially occupied a temporary room at the headquarters of the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (CBPF). Since then, the institute has moved to different locations in Botafogo and downtown Rio de Janeiro, until finally settling at its current campus in Jardim Botânico. This allowed for the expansion of activities and the creation of two important laboratories: Visgraf (IMPA's Computer Graphics Laboratory) and Fluid (Fluid Dynamics Laboratory), established in the 1980s.
After its initial years at CBPF, IMPA moved in 1957 to its first permanent headquarters, in a rented building on Rua São Clemente in Botafogo. The next location, to which IMPA moved in 1967, was a historic building on Rua Luís de Camões in the city center, which currently houses the Hélio Oiticica Cultural Center. This new address, where the institute remained for 15 years, was the stage for significant transformations, such as the consolidation of its own faculty of mathematicians, which allowed for the creation of new research areas, such as algebraic and differential geometry, probability, statistics, operations research, optimization, and mathematical economics.
With growth, the need for a new headquarters became urgent. The then-director-general, Lindolpho de Carvalho Dias, dedicated himself to acquiring a new campus, this time on company-owned land and with a structure that could accommodate the expansion of activities. “Having our own headquarters was always a concern. FINEP (Financing Agency for Studies and Projects) promised that if we could acquire the land, they would finance the purchase. I found this 30,000 square meter plot in the newspaper and was delighted. We invited four or five architects to present projects and chose the one we liked best,” stated Lindolpho.
Inaugurated in 1981, the Dona Castorina Road headquarters laid the foundation for the institute to emerge as one of the most renowned research centers in the world over the last 40 years. “The Horto campus was a watershed moment. At the time, the institute was basically a highly renowned postgraduate and research institution. But the new headquarters allowed for the creation of teacher training programs and the expansion of the production of books and teaching materials. The very realization of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools) would not have been feasible in any of the previous locations. The conditions that this headquarters provided are incomparable and were fundamental in transforming IMPA into what it has become,” explained IMPA's Director-General, Marcelo Viana.
Since its creation, IMPA's mission has been to stimulate scientific research, train new researchers, and disseminate and improve mathematical culture in Brazil. The changes the institute has undergone have allowed for important achievements in its history. In 2021, the institution took a new step with the start of construction of a new campus on land adjacent to its current headquarters, which will allow for the expansion of initiatives in the area of education, technical projects, and partnerships with companies and institutions to create solutions for the productive sector.
Campus in Jardim Botânico opens space for new laboratories.
Created in 1987, Fluid (Fluid Dynamics Laboratory) develops projects directly linked to technology, with applications ranging from weather forecasting to oil recovery. Founder and leader of the laboratory, Dan Marchesin, explains that the working group arose from a demand for modernization of research. “Computers were already catching fire abroad. So, it was necessary that Brazil not fall behind. Establishing a computational area at IMPA would attract attention,” he said.
Aluno trabalha no Fluid
The focus is on working in research areas that bridge abstract mathematics and computing to solve technological challenges, also used by other areas of science. The main fields of activity are Oil Recovery, Numerical Weather Prediction, Wave Propagation in Heterogeneous Media, and Turbulence in Liquids.
The laboratory benefits from intense collaboration with the national and international scientific community, which intensified during the pandemic. “We frequently work with consultants from other states and countries. We maintain collaborations with universities such as USP, PUC-Rio, UFAL, FGV, and with institutions in the United States, Mexico, Italy, and the Netherlands, for example,” Marchesin explained.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the laboratory joined forces with research institutions across Brazil for an epidemiological analysis project, led by the Federal University of Alagoas. The group developed a set of mathematical models and computational tools to determine how stringent control measures should be for each population group and how each decision made can contribute to achieving the necessary level of disease containment.
Launched in 1989, Visgraf was created to promote and develop research, teaching, and project activities in the areas of geometric models and images. But IMPA's interest in the subject began ten years earlier, when the institute acquired a Tektronix graphics terminal, which is currently part of the laboratory's historical collection. Visgraf's origins date back to the 1989 Summer Program, with the then-unprecedented mini-course "Introduction to Computer Graphics," taught by Jonas Gomes and Luiz Velho. The course was so popular that the two friends began developing the new research line at IMPA.
Antigos equipamentos do Visgraf
“At IMPA, there was nothing in this area. Starting a project from scratch was very appealing, and I made a proposal to the institute. I was hired, I created Visgraf, and I created and structured the master's, doctoral, and post-doctoral programs in Computer Graphics,” Gomes recalled.
Since then, Visgraf has been developing projects in innovative initiatives that are at the forefront of technology, such as current work on metaverse and augmented reality. Research topics also include Image Analysis and Processing, Image Synthesis and Visualization, Geometric Modeling and Interaction, and Animation and Multimedia.
“We are always working with innovation and trending topics, but we don't pursue these subjects for that reason alone. It's natural, since mathematics is directly linked to technology. Google only works well because it has a data mining algorithm, which has very sophisticated mathematics behind it. In the case of the metaverse, the origin of everything is intelligent media, which is based on applied mathematics,” explains Luiz Velho, lead researcher at Visgraf .
Innovative research, master's and doctoral training, as well as training for basic education teachers, the organization of OBMEP, the largest scientific competition in Brazil, projects to popularize mathematics, and partnerships with the productive sector form a unique set of activities in the world. IMPA reaches its 70th anniversary celebrating its achievements and looking to the future. The inauguration of the Pi Center ( IMPA Center for Projects and Innovation) in 2021, and the construction of the new campus will elevate the institute's capacity to contribute to Brazilian society to a new level.