22/03/2019

OBMEP medalists are accepted into the prestigious MIT.

Pedro e Orisvaldo são multimedalhistas em olimpíadas do conhecimento

The most popular mathematical constant, Pi, written as π and celebrated worldwide on March 14th – an allusion, in English, to the endless number that begins with the digits 3.14 – will surely remain in the memory of two OBMEP medalists, no matter what professional path they follow.

Orisvaldo Salviano Neto, 18, from Ceará, learned of his acceptance to one of the world's most prestigious educational institutions, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on Pi Day, celebrated last Thursday (14). Meanwhile, Pedro Lucas Lanaro Sponchiado, from São Paulo, also 18, applied for the so-called early action and learned of his result, guess at what time?, at 3:14 pm. Both will leave for the United States in August, with scholarships from the institution.

The announcement of those accepted into the regular admissions process on Pi Day is a tradition at MIT. Even so, Orisvaldo, a gold and bronze medalist in the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBMEP), only checked if he had been admitted around midnight – his surprise at the result is captured in the video below. He was in Vinhedo (SP), participating in a selection process for a competition in the field of Astronomy.

“In Brazil, due to the time difference, the result came out at 7:28 pm. Since I had a test at 8 pm, I didn't want to look at the message beforehand to avoid jeopardizing my chances if the answer was negative. So, I immediately turned off my cell phone,” he says, who was born in Fortaleza but spent his childhood in Horizonte, about 50 kilometers from the capital of Ceará.

When he finally turned on the device, he was surprised by the news, given by his parents, and numerous congratulatory messages. “Since they had my login, they knew right away and were very happy, just like me. They know that MIT has been my dream for a long time,” explains the student, who lives in a rented apartment in Fortaleza with his parents, a younger brother, and a younger sister.

After studying at the Joaquim Domingos Educational College in Horizonte, he went to Fortaleza, where he attended Antares, the Military College of Fortaleza, and, during high school, won a scholarship to Ari de Sá. In recent years, he changed his mind several times about his academic path, undecided between areas such as physics, chemistry, and astronomy, but always with his focus on MIT.

“There, it’s possible to take subjects from various courses in the first two years. There’s a lot of freedom of choice,” he says, believing he was also accepted due to his participation and performance in knowledge olympiads, such as the OBMEP: “It was only because of the olympiads that I was exposed to the world outside the classroom. They opened many doors,” assesses Orisvaldo, who has already won around 30 medals in national and international competitions in various fields of knowledge, including a bronze medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad in the Czech Republic last year.

Perfect score at international olympiad

Just ask Pedro, from Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo. Last year, he traveled to Romania as a representative for Brazil in the oldest and most renowned scientific olympiad for high school students, the IMO – an acronym for International Mathematical Olympiad. There, he stood out: he scored 35 out of 42 possible points on the two tests and brought home a gold medal . Pedro finished 12th overall among nearly 600 participants.

Em 2018, na 59ª IMO, Pedro (3º da dir. para esq.) conquistou um ouro para o Brasil

It wasn't the only gold medal won in 2018. In the last edition of OBMEP, he repeated the feat as a student at Colégio Etapa. The perfect score obtained in the Mathematics Olympiad of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries in 2015 also earned him gold and led Brazil to 1st place overall in the competition.

The results obtained in the Olympiads undoubtedly contributed to the good news received from MIT, considers the student, who also won gold in the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad (OBM).

“There, unlike other prominent universities in the United States, they place greater weight on academic achievements such as knowledge olympiads. In fact, this helped me a lot, especially participating in international olympiads,” he emphasizes, adding that he is preparing for the IMO 2019 selection process and has already been selected for the International Olympiad in Informatics in Azerbaijan in August.

Besides performance, the student from São Paulo believes that participation in the Olympiads is taken into account because it shows the student's dedication. “More than proving you're good, these competitions show that you've invested a lot of time in something. They like to see that, in general, you're focused,” he says, who lives with his father and two younger brothers in São Paulo.

Pedro hasn't yet decided on the field he wants to pursue, but mathematics and computer science are on his radar. "The intention is to explore the various possibilities," says the student, who already has a guaranteed scholarship at MIT.