Retrospective 2025: look back at the main academic activities

IMPA Tech has had a busy academic year! In January, students took part in IMPA’s traditional Summer Program, concluding the 2024 academic year. In March, the 2025 term began with the arrival of new students from different regions of the country to make up the second class of the undergraduate program. In July, the undergraduates attended the 35th Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium (CBM), the largest event in the field in the country. Take a look back at these and other academic highlights in this article, which begins the IMPA Tech Retrospective 2025.

Throughout January, the students experienced the “IMPA Summer Program”. Summer Program“, which since 1968 has brought together undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in an intense program of courses, mini-courses and seminars at the Institute’s headquarters in the Botanical Garden. The event coincided with the 1.3 undergraduate period and marked the end of the 2024 academic year.

In March, when classes resumed, freshmen and veterans were welcomed in a Aula Magna special. Armínio Fraga, former president of the Central Bank and founding partner of Gávea Investimentos, and Fernanda Scovino, general coordinator of data governance at the Ministry of Education and co-founder of Base dos Dados, took part in the meeting alongside IMPA’s director-general, Marcelo Viana. The guests shared their careers, discussed contemporary challenges in their fields and highlighted IMPA’s relevance to the country’s scientific development.

In May, it was the turn of the students in the new class to present their work from the Language Skills subject, taught by teacher Cilene Rodrigues. In Xenolinguistics ProjectAt the end of the course, each group developed a fictitious language, the “alien languages”, with syntax inspired by human languages, as a tool to deepen the study of grammar. Artificial intelligence, futurism and biological and geographical adaptations were some of the themes explored.

In July, during the 35TH CBMIMPA Tech graduates returned to IMPA to follow the activities of the biggest event in Brazilian mathematics, organized by IMPA every two years since 1957. Pedro Henrique Reis and Marcos Abílio, from class 2024, presented at the thematic session “Reproducing Results in Computer Graphics”coordinated by Visgraf (IMPA’s Computer Graphics Laboratory). Professor Asla Sá also took part in the session.

In August, a partnership with the Confucius Institute, of PUC-Rio, started the beginner Mandarin course at IMPA Tech, open to all bachelor’s degree students. The educational cooperation aims to spread Chinese language and culture. The aim of the course is that learning Chinese will give undergraduates greater opportunities in the job market and exchange possibilities.

In October, the academic calendar was highlighted by the 2nd Model United NationsThe event brought together students from class 2025 in a series of debates on diplomacy, international politics and conflict resolution. The activity is part of the subject Construction of Textual Narratives, also taught by Professor Cilene, and reinforces the interdisciplinary nature of the bachelor’s degree.

A few weeks later, the topic of diplomacy returned to the center of discussions with a conversation with European Union ConsulsThe event brought together students from both classes. Topics discussed at the Model UN – such as modern slavery, data center construction, pricing and internet regulation – were taken up alongside global issues such as sustainability and climate change, in the light of COP 30 taking place in Brazil.

In November, at the end of the academic activities of the 2025.2 term, work presentations marked the month. At IMPA’s headquarters, students from the 2024 class took part in a scientific poster session in englishThe projects were part of the final assessment for English 2, taught by Professor Rafael Beraldo. The projects covered the four emphases of the bachelor’s degree – Mathematics, Data Science, Physics and Computer Science – and simulated participation in an international congress.

In the halls of Porto Maravalley, students from the subject Machine LearningThe students, supervised by Professor Rodrigo Ribeiro, presented their final projects, which apply artificial intelligence algorithms and data analysis to different practical contexts. In the same week, the Science Festival brought the academic calendar to a close before the final exams, with presentations from the subject Construction of Textual Narratives and lectures by IMPA researchers.

Read more: Students from all over the country take part in physics tournament at IMPA Tech
See also: IMPA and Coppe/UFRJ sign agreement for training in computing