30/08/2021

In the book "Inspiring Stories from OBMEP": Pietro Pepe

“One thing that intrigued me about mathematics was this whole thing about prime numbers. They're kind of crazy, they don't have a defined pattern,” says Pietro Pepe, a skinny, quick-witted Carioca (Rio de Janeiro native), as he introduces the Riemann Hypothesis into the conversation, a formula postulated in 1859 for the distribution of prime numbers – still unproven to this day. When he first encountered the problem, he was paralyzed: “I went to read the statement, which says: 'all the non-trivial zeros of the zeta function…' that's already messed up,” he reveals, laughing, about the conjecture, the subject of the project developed in his first participation in the Scientific Initiation and Master's Program (Picme).

Throughout the afternoon of that Tuesday in April, at the Visualization, TV/Digital Cinema and Games Research Laboratory (Icad/VisionLab) at PUC-Rio, where he has worked since 2016, Pietro's speech remains enthusiastic and punctuated by slang – natural, considering his recently turned 22 years. However abstract the topic may be, Pietro expresses himself in a way that invites understanding. It becomes easy to understand why he earned the nickname "Professor" in his early years at school.

It soon becomes clear that Pietro wants to embrace the world. But who doubts his ability to multitask effectively? By 2018, he should complete two degrees at PUC-Rio (Computer Engineering and Mathematics); he works in a laboratory and is a teaching assistant at the university; he teaches at three community-based college preparatory courses; he develops applications for mobile platforms and still manages to find time to dance hip-hop and write poems. "My day is different, it has several time zones," says the young man, with green eyes and incredibly long eyelashes.

Faced with her son's tireless energy, Marta Cristina Ribeiro Pepe responds with an emotional speech. Life's setbacks have transformed her into a mother of extremes. After the pain of a spontaneously interrupted pregnancy, she faced the possibility of another loss when she became pregnant again. Twins Pietro and Marcelle were born prematurely at six and a half months. "He spent a month in the ICU, between life and death. All of this makes me a much more doting mother," she explains.

Other hardships crossed the family's path. Her modest salary as a teacher grew when she took on a human resources management role at a multinational company. But, also from one day to the next, she found herself unemployed. "My children have lived through having very little and having a lot. This made them mature and value things more," reflects Marta, who has degrees in literature and law.

Due to a limited budget, Marta rejoiced when Pietro won a scholarship to a renowned private school. But she swallowed her disappointment when her son chose to repeat the first year of high school just to get into the highly competitive Cefet (Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca), where he had secured a place in the Integrated High School and Computer Technician program. Later, she realized he was right.

As a student at the institution, Pietro won a silver medal in the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBMEP) in 2012, securing his entry into the Scientific Initiation Program (PIC). Afterwards, he tested his performance by taking entrance exams for several institutions, despite still being in his second year of high school. He was accepted into all of them: UFRJ, Unicamp, and PUC-Rio, where he achieved the highest overall score.

To guarantee his enrollment at the university, he went to court, but the admission conditional on completing basic education forced him to take both courses simultaneously. Since he lived in Guaratiba (60km from downtown Rio), he would leave at 4:30 am and take three buses to arrive at PUC at 7 am. In the afternoon, he would head to the Computer Science course at Cefet. And, at 5:30 pm, he would rush to Campo Grande, where, starting at 7 pm, he would attend supplementary classes at a state public school.

Pietro lived in very different worlds. By day, a private university in the south of the city with excellent infrastructure, qualified professors, and classmates from upper-class backgrounds. At night, a public school in the west of the city, marked by physical and human resource limitations, and less privileged classes. He realized that simply working hard isn't always enough to achieve what you want. "When I went to study in Campo Grande, I realized it was more complicated. There's a huge gap," he says.

Affected by the experience, he decided to do something to try to change that reality. In 2013, shortly after enrolling at PUC-Rio, he volunteered for the institution's Adult Education Center (Nead) and even earned points in academic performance. He is so involved that, despite already having enough credits in complementary activities, he is still a math teacher today. "He stays here because he likes it: he's dedicated, very creative. Science should invest in him," says the pedagogical coordinator of Nead, Ana de Almeida.

Pietro teaches at two other community-based college preparatory courses: one at the Anchieta University Pastoral, also part of PUC, and another at Cefet. The challenge is teaching a student body with such diverse profiles and high dropout rates, but the results have been positive. He speaks proudly of the driver in his fifties who got into Geography at PUC. And of the mother who graduated from two universities and is taking the course just to encourage her daughter. "The other day, I was happy when she told me: 'I didn't know math was so cool'."

Pietro envisions a long career in teaching. But not only that. "There are so many areas to apply it to…"

Invited to give the lecture “Mathematics in Games and Digital Applications” at the Mathematics Festival, held by IMPA in April 2017, only one thing seemed to bother him: the formal attire he chose for the distinguished event. Otherwise, he dominated the scene. With his own unique style, he held the audience's attention from beginning to end. And, once his talk was over, he still had to deal with a huge line of fans interested in discovering more about this guy who talked all about game development. “This world attracts me because it has countless applications: entertainment, advertising, training, educational games.”

With such a busy schedule, Pietro left his parents' house in Recreio dos Bandeirantes (west zone) and rented a room near PUC, in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro. Between classes, he dedicates himself to deepening his mathematical knowledge.

For three years, he was a student at Picme: he studied the so-called "Riemann Hypothesis"; created a computer program; and researched neural networks, a learning system inspired by the central nervous system and used, for example, to recognize patterns in objects.

In 2015, Pietro was one of 80 students from Brazilian universities chosen by the tech giant Apple to receive an annual scholarship. A month after the interview, he would again attract the company's attention: an iOS app he created led to him being selected to spend ten days at Apple's headquarters in California. His mother, Marta, shared the news with her, beaming with joy. "She's incredibly proud! If you talk to her, you'll hear the emotion in her voice," the university student summarized. And he was right.

* Text taken from the book “Inspiring Stories of OBMEP”