08/08/2024

PICME scholarship recipients have had their theses awarded by SBMAC.

Na foto, da esquerda para a direita: João Vitor Parada Poletto e Leonardo Farias dos Santos

PICME (Scientific Initiation and Master's Program) scholarship recipients João Vitor Parada Poletto, 24, and Leonardo Farias dos Santos, 21, had their master's and scientific initiation theses awarded by the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics (SBMAC).

Holding a Master's degree in Mathematics from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Poletto achieved 1st place in the Caesar Gonzaga award , which recognizes the best Master's dissertation in the field of Applied and Computational Mathematics. During his Master's studies, Poletto researched "Numerical methods for solving Partial Differential Equations in the context of aquatic waves." The study has applications in tsunamis, through a function that models the seabed, influencing wave generation.

Leonardo, who began his master's degree in mathematics this year at Unifesp (Federal University of São Paulo), won 3rd place in the Beatriz Neves award . The award aims to encourage undergraduate students to participate in scientific initiation activities in the field of Applied and Computational Mathematics . With his work "Well-rounded lattices via quadratic fields," developed during his undergraduate studies, the student explored an area that has been the focus of several recent studies in the field of error-correcting codes and that uses concepts from Algebraic Number Theory.

For the young people, the awards are the result of a long academic journey that begins with OBMEP. The students have participated in several editions of the Olympiad since elementary school, and their good performance has earned them medals and the opportunity to participate in PIC Jr (Junior Scientific Initiation Program), a program that offers advanced classes in mathematics.

With two bronze medals, won in the 9th grade of elementary school and the 3rd year of high school, João Vitor said he had the support of his mother, who printed out old tests for practice at home. With dedication, the student secured a place in the PIC and later in the PICME , which offers scholarships to young people who excelled in mathematics olympiads. Today, the Paraná native is a doctoral student at UFPR.

“In the PIC program, I had the opportunity to study mathematics topics in more depth. I started to like it more, despite the difficulties. In the beginning, it was quite difficult because I was a public school student and my foundation wasn't the best. I had a decent mathematical knowledge, but it wasn't very in-depth. In the PIC program, I was able to delve a little deeper and saw that there was a whole world of things to learn, and because I did the PIC program during my physics degree, I was able to get into the PICME program,” said João Vitor.

With Leonardo, the influence of OBMEP is repeated. A student in the public school system of São José dos Campos throughout middle school, the young man received honorable mention certificates from OBMEP in the 7th and 8th grades and was a silver medalist in the 9th grade. Now, he has begun a master's degree in pure and applied mathematics with a PICME-OBMEP scholarship at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP).

“I became a PICME scholarship recipient this year, at the suggestion of my course coordinator. I am very grateful for the support that PICME provides me and I hope to continue meeting the expectations placed on me. The scholarship is a great incentive,” declared Leonardo.