25/04/2024

IMPA's innovative undergraduate program is featured in Jornal Hoje.

The interdisciplinary curriculum and the regional variety of students that make up the first class of IMPA Tech were highlighted in the report on Jornal Hoje , a TV Globo news program, on Monday (22).

The Mathematics of Technology and Innovation degree program brings together students from all five regions of Brazil, with 80% of them coming from knowledge olympiads, such as the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP).

Alex Vieira comes from Cocal dos Alves, a town of five thousand inhabitants in the interior of Piauí known as the 'capital of mathematics' for the performance of its residents in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools). “It’s an honor for me to be able to participate in IMPA Tech! My family was very happy, always congratulating me and motivating me to stay here,” he stated. Alex's municipality, despite having one of the fifty lowest Human Development Index (HDI) scores, has accumulated hundreds of awards in the Olympiad.

IMPA Tech, IMPA's first undergraduate course, is 100% free and offers financial aid to students. To bring together people from all over the country, students of legal age are also guaranteed housing.

Luísa Querido, a student who attended high school at a state school in Nilópolis, in the Baixada Fluminense region, spoke about the importance of the degree being free. “It was very good news. I always wanted to study in this area of technology. For us, from public schools, it was certainly an unimaginable advancement,” she stated.

IMPA Tech classes take place at Porto Maravalley, the innovation hub of the Rio de Janeiro City Hall, in the city's port area.

Lucas Nissenbaum, project scientist at IMPA, highlighted the importance of the campus operating alongside the space that will house technology startups. “In their first year, students will already have courses related to data science, and they will have more advanced courses where they can work with companies on projects in various sectors. So, they will have the opportunity to see artificial intelligence in practice and use it as part of their training,” he concluded.

The curriculum is interdisciplinary, with classes in Language Skills, Algebra, Calculus, Programming, English, among others. The training is comprehensive and includes both theoretical and practical classes.