Festival wants to enchant the public with mathematics, says Marcelo Viana

05/09/2024

A 3rd edition of the National Mathematics Festival began on Thursday (5) at Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro. With the theme “Mathematics is Innovation”, the event runs until Saturday (7). On this first day, FestMat is exclusively for public and private school students and from tomorrow (6) it will be open to the general public.

Marcelo Viana, director-general of IMPA, pointed out that one of the Festival’s main aims, since its first edition in 2017, has been to break down stereotypes of mathematics and associate the discipline with fun. “This edition is special because we chose a theme [Mathematics and Innovation] that has everything to do with what we are experiencing at IMPA. The Festival is not a time to learn mathematics, that’s not the aim, the Festival is a time to be enchanted by mathematics, to have fun and, for those who have a difficult relationship with the discipline, to deconstruct that relationship. It’s a party, a fun and entertaining event,” said Viana.

IMPA’s director-general announced that the Festival will be consolidated as a regular event that will become part of Rio de Janeiro’s calendar every two years. The opening table was attended by Renan Ferreirinha, Rio de Janeiro’s Secretary of Education, who highlighted the city’s role as the capital of innovation, a milestone built in partnership with IMPA’s initiatives. Along with FestMat, OBMEP (the Brazilian Public School Mathematics Olympiad) and IMPA Tech, IMPA’s first undergraduate course, are major arms of innovation and popularization of mathematics in the country.

“I feel at home, it’s very gratifying to see what IMPA represents for our city, for our country. It’s great to see our children getting excited about robot soccer, seeing here what they learn in the classroom,” said the secretary.

Partner of the event, the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan) SESI brought one of the successes of the first editions of FestMat: the square wheel bicycle. In the first lecture of the day, Firjan SESI’s education manager, Vinícius Mano, pointed out that the institution has invested in the dissemination of mathematics, to make the subject increasingly accessible. Mano also recalled the role of the Firjan SESI Matemática mobile unit, which is at the event, and the expansion of the Firjan Sesi schools. “Our intention is to show that mathematics is an accessible, fun and interesting science. It’s a great pleasure to be here.”

The round table “Voices from the MOI” brought to the audience reports and experiences from participants in IMPA’s Olympic Girls (MOI) project, which aims to bring girls closer to careers in the exact sciences, such as mathematics, engineering and computer science. Emanuella Carneiro, Anna Luísa Sá, Estrela Fontes, Vitória dos Santos and Letícia Rangel, the MOI coordinator, took part in the conversation. “My task here today is a gift: to coordinate the chat with these four young women who are writing their future with mathematics. I think the voices of these Olympic girls can represent countless students. MOI is an education project that aims to overcome gender stereotypes and can reach girls and make them choose mathematics,” said Rangel.

In addition to the round table, the MOI is taking part in FestMat with a stand featuring Arduino robotics prototypes, puzzles that stimulate creativity and mathematical reasoning, mosaics made from magic cubes and experiments with three-dimensional drawings.

Robotics Maracana

Robot soccer by the IME (Military Engineering Institute) robotics team, RoboIME, turned the Festival into a small Maracanã. The matches entertained the public at Marina da Glória.

FestMat has attractions for all ages. Origami, Lego and Tangram are the highlights in the hands-on experiments area. The Afroreggae Games Arena, which shows how games have evolved over the years, is especially popular with teenagers.

The Visgraf stand (IMPA’s Computer Graphics Laboratory) transports visitors to Ancient Egypt on a virtual tour of Neferhotep’s tomb. The project was created in partnership with Lapid (National Museum), BioDesign (PUC-Rio) and INT. The Pi Center (IMPA’s Center for Projects and Innovation) has an immersive space to present solutions developed with artificial intelligence. The Rio Planetarium is offering telescope observation experiences of the Sun. Check out the full program here.

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