One Education, Many Futures: Event Brings Together Research and the Market

Academic research and the job market took center stage this Thursday (the 13th) at IMPA Tech. Held under the theme “One Education, Multiple Futures”, the event brought together the 1st Career Fair and the 1st Scientific Initiation Conference, introducing students to various career opportunities and research projects conducted as part of their undergraduate studies.

Throughout the day, 25 students presented their research projects during poster sessions, while companies spoke with the undergraduates about career opportunities. Stone, Inoa, and MAG—sponsors of IMPA Tech—gave presentations on their companies’ history and culture. Radix, CERC, Axia, Valor Capital Group, and Banco BOCOM BBM also participated in the fair, discussing their areas of operation and available internship programs.

The program also featured the talk “Chart Your Own Course” by Brazilian researcher Cristina Nader Vasconcelos, a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, and the roundtable discussion “Basic Research and Brazilian Innovation,” moderated by Professor Cilene Rodrigues.

Scientific research is gaining ground

At IMPA Tech’s 1st Scientific Initiation Conference, students presented posters on projects developed within the bachelor’s degree program’s areas of emphasis: Mathematics; Physics; Artificial Intelligence and Data Science; and Computer Science. The students shared the results of their research conducted as part of the PICME (Scientific Initiation and Master’s Program) and developed their communication skills.

“Staying in touch with companies, presenting our work, and exchanging ideas with classmates is very valuable. We’re learning about what companies do, what career paths we can pursue, and what internship opportunities we can take advantage of,” said student Yasmin Monteiro.

For Adriana Kaminsky, the integration of the two events underscored the importance of bridging the gap between research and the professional world. “It was the first time I presented a poster at an event while I was still an undergraduate. And it’s great that it’s here at IMPA Tech, at home, alongside my colleagues. Plus, we can show companies what we’re doing, reinforcing the idea that academia shouldn’t be separated from the job market. We’re in constant dialogue,” she said.

Professor Asla Sá, coordinator of the Undergraduate Research Program, explains that the integration was planned precisely to expand this dialogue. “We chose to combine these two events to broaden the network of communication between companies and student projects, while also allowing students to learn about the companies’ work. It was a very productive day, and the experience was a success,” she said.

From Campus to the Job Market

At the 1st Career Fair, companies presented their missions, areas of operation, job opportunities, and ideal candidate profiles, introducing students to a variety of career options.

“IMPA Tech is unique in that it trains mathematicians for a future in research, but also for a future in professional practice—and everything in between. It’s a very important event because it brings us closer to our sponsors and attracts new companies to our campus, allowing them to present their internship opportunities to our students,” explained Rafael Beraldo, skills development manager at IMPA Tech.

The event also gave companies the opportunity to get to know the students and their academic experiences more closely. For Rafael Aoki Kikuchi, founding partner of Inoa, the technical profile of the undergraduates is one of the main attractions for the company. “IMPA Tech is a hotbed of potential talent. We see people here from all over, who have very strong technical backgrounds and appeal to us. That’s why we’re here. In the market, our biggest bottleneck isn’t a lack of demand—it’s a lack of qualified people,” he said.

Luís Henrique Fontes, MAG’s chief technology officer, highlighted the students’ willingness to pursue an education focused on knowledge and innovation. “You’ve already made a very difficult decision: to venture out into the world in search of knowledge. We greatly value that,” he said.

The development of new talent was also highlighted by Luciana Rosa, MAG’s talent acquisition manager. “I see a wealth of opportunities here. We need a very robust technology park at MAG. We need to be efficient on many fronts, and training young talent is essential for us,” she added.

Joice Lopes, a talent program analyst at Stone, highlighted the need to keep pace with changes in the market and technology. “Every company’s strategy changes; the market changes. We do things differently for the end customer, and we do things differently in our internal processes, and I see this purpose reflected in my day-to-day work. We need to keep up with these changes,” she said.

Research, Innovation, and Career Development

The program also included a discussion of the paths available to students after graduation. In the lecture “Chart Your Own Path”, researcher Cristina Nader Vasconcelos, a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind in Montreal, shared experiences from her own career path and reflected on the challenges of building a career in the tech industry.

Cristina, who holds a Ph.D. from PUC-Rio and is a former professor at the Federal University of Fluminense (UFF), has been working in the field of artificial intelligence since 2015, with research spanning machine learning, generative models, computer vision, and applications in various fields.

While speaking with the students, the researcher emphasized that there is no single career path to follow. In her view, understanding one’s own characteristics, interests, and goals is more important than simply following in the footsteps of others. “We have to find our own path—the one that works for each of us,” she said.

Among the lessons shared, Cristina highlighted the importance of curiosity, the exchange of ideas, and a willingness to experiment. “Share your thoughts. Ideas kept to yourself are dead ideas. We need to debate, put our ideas out into the world, share them, reflect, and make an impact. To come up with a transformative idea, we go through a lot of bad ones, but that’s part of the process,” she said.

Cristina also participated in the roundtable discussion “Basic Research and Innovation in Brazilian Industry”, which broadened the discussion to include the relationship between scientific knowledge and technological development. Moderated by Professor Cilene Rodrigues, the debate brought together Fabiana Gavinho of the BNDES; Miguel da Silva of Uber; Rodrigo Schuller of the Pi Center/IMPA; and Thiago Tergolino of Asteras.

The pace of technological change and the importance of basic research were among the topics discussed. According to Rodrigo Schuller, despite the rapid changes in tools and technologies, scientific fundamentals remain essential for understanding and developing new solutions.

“Technologies are changing quite rapidly. Projects we worked on way back in previous years already use different tools. With the advent of language models, progress has been exponential. But the underlying science has remained stable so far. Research advances, technologies change, but understanding what lies behind all of this is essential,” he said.

The combination of these two moments reinforced one of the event’s key messages: students’ education can open up different paths, and the boundary between research, technology, and the market is becoming increasingly permeable. All in the course of a single day, undergraduate students were able to present their work, learn about companies and career opportunities, and hear from researchers and professionals about the challenges of forging their own career paths.