08/12/2022

Unicamp Olympic Vacancies: 25% of enrolled students are from OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools).

Of the 209 students who have already secured a place in undergraduate courses at Unicamp through the "Olympic Vacancies" program, 53 are medalists from the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) – representing 25% of the total students approved in this modality. The program functions as an alternative to the traditional entrance exam and allows students who have won awards in different knowledge olympiads to compete for different undergraduate places.

The university has already opened applications for the 2023 entrance exam. 122 places will be offered across 33 courses, and medals from more than 10 Olympiads will be accepted. Check the announcement here.

One of the first OBMEP medalists to join the program, launched in 2018, was university student Natainá Novaes Silva Barbosa. She is expected to complete her Statistics degree at the end of this year.

Natainá, a former student of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo in São João da Boa Vista, says she started participating in the OBMEP exams in the 9th grade of elementary school. In total, she won an honorable mention, two bronze medals, one silver medal, and finally the gold medal, which she used to gain admission to her undergraduate program. “First, I won the bronze medal. Then, I already knew what the exam was like and I started studying other topics like probability and functions, for example, and I started taking the exams from previous editions, and I'm very proud because I ended up taking all the exams. It was the only time I dedicated myself 100% to my studies,” she says.

Natainá won her gold medal in her final year of school – “in the fourth year.” At the Federal Institute where she studied, the curriculum includes an extra year of study due to the addition of technical-level subjects.

According to the student, the OBMEP medal also enabled her to obtain a scholarship to support herself in Campinas . At the university, she benefited from the BAS (Social Assistance Scholarship) and became part of a university program aimed at preparing students for the OBMEP exams.

Currently, the young woman is no longer part of the project. She gave up her scholarship to be able to do an internship in the field of Data Engineering.

Approved with a silver medal.

Nathan Titonelli Leonardo, an 18-year-old current second-year Control and Automation Engineering student, also entered Unicamp through the "Olympic Vacancies" program. He won one of the available spots in the program with a silver medal from OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools). Born in Espírito Santo, the student supports himself in Campinas with a scholarship from Unicamp and works as a monitor for the POTI (Intensive Training Olympic Centers Program) of OBMEP.

“OBMEP brought me to Unicamp and sustains me here. I am a monitor for POTI. I find it very exciting to teach children who want to follow the same path as me. It's a really cool job: helping students with the difficulties I had,” said the university student.

Nathan also participates in Embraer's mentorship program and is the director of electrical and electronic engineering at FSAE-Unicamp, a Brazilian formula racing team responsible for the entire design and manufacturing of prototypes that resemble Formula 1 cars.

Nathan, a former public school student, recalls that in elementary school he didn't have much information about OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools). It was in high school, at the Federal Institute of Espírito Santo (Serra campus), that he began to dedicate himself to various knowledge olympiads. The university student has won a total of 15 awards.

“I started participating in OBMEP in sixth grade, but my public school didn't pay much attention to the Olympiad. I remember passing but not making it to the second phase because it was on a Saturday. It was in high school, when I entered the Federal Institute [of Espírito Santo], that I earned an honorable mention. That year my school achieved the highest score in the category, won a trophy, and that's when my history with OBMEP began. After that, I started participating in every Olympiad that came up. Today, I have 15 medals from OBMEP, the astronomy Olympiad, robotics, and others.”

Multiple medalist at Unicamp

João Vitor Vieira de Castro, 19, one of the multi-medalist winners of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), was also approved in the "Olympic Vacancies 2021" edition. Today, he is pursuing a degree in Mathematics and says that OBMEP influenced his choice of science for his undergraduate studies. Despite having won six gold medals, he says with conviction that the first honorable mention, achieved in the sixth grade of elementary school, was the award that most encouraged him. He fondly remembers a teacher who supported him in his studies.

“I had a 7th-grade teacher, Angelita, who gave me study materials and a question bank, and that's how I won my first medal. In addition, I participated in all the Junior Scientific Initiation Programs (PICs), except the last one, to give opportunities to other people, since the remaining spots go to those who received honorable mentions, and it's a wonderful experience,” says the student.

Olympic spots

Unicamp has opened applications for the "Olympic Vacancies 2023" selection process. Applications must be submitted via an electronic form on the Comvest website by January 16, 2023. Students who received awards in 2021 and 2022 are eligible to apply. Each candidate may choose up to two undergraduate courses. In total, Unicamp will offer 122 vacancies.