24/10/2022

Projects from the Pi Center become the subject of a doctoral thesis.

Former public school student and the first member of his family to complete higher education, Thiago Rodrigo Ramos defends, this Monday (24), the doctoral thesis “Boosting and measurement concentration methods in machine learning”, at 1 pm, in room 232, at IMPA. The work addresses the mathematical techniques used in three major projects of the Pi Center in partnership with the companies: Stone, Dasa and Grupo Globo.

"Three chapters of my thesis came from these projects. One was developed for credit analysis, another on the construction of confidence intervals, and now one for Globo. We use statistics to solve problems along with applied mathematics. These three projects have in common what we call the theory of measurement concentration," explained the doctoral student, whose advisor is IMPA researcher Roberto Imbuzeiro.

Despite being part of the Pi Center for three years, Ramos explains that he arrived at IMPA with a bachelor's and master's degree in pure mathematics, specifically in Dynamical Systems. However, his passion for programming and computing prevailed and contributed to his change of field.

"I felt something was missing until I learned statistics from Roberto [Imbuzeiro] and later from Paulo [Orenstein], who was the heart of the Pi Center. I was very lucky to be able to be part of these projects from the beginning."

She chose mathematics at age 10.

Born in the interior of São Paulo, in the city of Araras, Thiago recounted that he decided to make mathematics his profession while still in the 5th grade of elementary school. To this day, he remembers the name of the teacher who inspired his decision: Célio Pacheco, his first professional role model.

The son of a driver and a homemaker, the doctoral candidate was the first member of his family to attend university. He spoke about the importance of his parents' support.

"My mother stopped studying in the 8th grade and my father in the 4th. He only finished elementary school as an adult. They stopped studying to work and gave up a lot so that I could get to where I am today."

Holding a degree in mathematics from the University of São Paulo (USP) in São Carlos, the doctoral candidate at IMPA intends to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at the institution and continue the projects developed at the Pi Center.

Outside of IMPA, Thiago dedicates himself to the guitar, drum lessons, enjoys cinema, and is still trying to adjust to the "chaos" of a city like Rio de Janeiro.