Industrial Challenges bring students closer to the job market
Students solve real problems proposed by partner companies
Students on the Bachelor of Mathematics in Technology and Innovation have a new extension course: Industrial Challenges. Held in partnership with public and private sector organizations, the challenges propose real problems to be solved by groups of six to ten students, who dedicate eight weeks to the projects. In this first edition, the partner institutions are Stone, Inoa and IplanRio, a technology company owned by Rio de Janeiro City Hall.
The activities are structured in the format of an extended hackathon, in which the young people are led by a company representative and guided by an IMPA Tech professor. “The aim is to provide students with practical and applied experience, stimulating the use of academic knowledge, research and innovation, as well as giving them their first contact with the dynamics and demands of the corporate environment,” explained Professor Rafael Beraldo, skills development manager.
The idea is for the Industrial Challenge to function as a phase prior to the internship, which can be taken from the final term of the second year of the course, and an opportunity for students and companies to get to know each other and evaluate each other. “For the student, who is the protagonist of their career, we believe it is an opportunity to meet future employers; for companies, an opportunity to meet future potential talent,” said Beraldo. The project is a compulsory curricular component in the Data Science and Computer Science emphases.
Student Bruno Pereira is studying Data Science and is in the group at Inoa – a company that specializes in critical systems for the capital markets. “This will be a great opportunity, because many skills can only be learned by getting hands-on. The biggest benefit of this challenge is the experience with the company, which seems to be very effective structurally, as well as learning and developing soft skills,” said the young man.
A new edition of the Industrial Challenge is planned for early 2027, with the selection of partner institutions taking place in mid-August 2026. Interested companies can contact parcerias@impatech.edu.br.
