17/04/2024

OBMEP brings students together in Natal for activities and challenges.

The Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP) will bring together 165 students from all over Brazil from April 2Mondays to 2Thursdays in Natal (RN), at the traditional Hilbert Hotel Meeting. The opening ceremony will feature video participation from federal deputy Tabata Amaral, an OBMEP medalist, and Juana Nunes, director of the Department of Popularization of Science, Technology and Scientific Education at MCTI.

The event, now in its 9th edition, is dedicated to students who excelled in the PIC ( Junior Scientific Initiation Program ), which offers advanced mathematics classes for Olympiad medalists. Promoted by IMPA , the initiative features 13 university professors from different regions of the country to discuss topics in the mathematical universe and encourage young people to dedicate themselves to improving their studies.

For Marcelo Viana, director-general of IMPA, the meeting goes beyond learning. “The Hilbert Hotel is a celebration, a very special moment of camaraderie for OBMEP medalists from all over Brazil, united by their love of mathematics.”

For four days, boys and girls from the Fridays grade of elementary school to the Tuesdays year of high school from public and private schools will participate in games, classes, lectures, and will be challenged to solve the "Problem of the Day." The best solutions will be presented to their classmates and teachers.

“Encrypted Messages: Let's Play at Encrypting?”, “An Introduction to Infection Graphs”, “Black Holes: What are they and what secrets of the universe do they hold?”, “Mathematical Magic: Tricks and a Little More” are some of the lectures scheduled to take place throughout the week.

The first Hilbert Hotel Meeting took place in 2011 in Nova Friburgo (RJ). Participants are selected by the PIC coordinators from each region of Brazil. The program brings together award-winning OBMEP students in enhanced mathematics classes. The goal is to expand the participants' scientific knowledge and prepare them for future professional and academic performance. Medalists from public schools who are part of the PIC also receive a scholarship of R$ 300.

Why is the meeting called Hilbert's Hotel?

In 1925, the German mathematician David Hilbert presented a paradox of infinity. It describes a hotel with an infinite number of rooms, always full, with one guest in each room. However, whenever a new guest arrives, the manager asks the existing guests to move to the adjacent room.

In mathematical terms, it's roughly like this: the guest in room n moves to room n+1, and so on. Better known as Hilbert's Hotel, the paradox illustrates the idea that, despite always being full, there are always vacancies.

This year's Hilbert Hotel Meeting is supported by the SBM (Brazilian Mathematical Society) and CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development).