Viana: ‘We have to solve challenges that society finds interesting’

“We have to solve problems that society finds interesting,” said Marcelo Viana, director-general of IMPA, at a round table at the 35th Brazilian Mathematics Colloquiumon Wednesday (30). The discussion dealt with the relationship between academic production in the exact sciences and the delivery of solutions to the market, as well as the challenges and alternatives for bringing the fields closer together.

Mediated by María Soledad, a researcher at the School of Applied Mathematics at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the debate included Gustavo Nonato (USP-SC), João Carabetta (Rio de Janeiro City Hall), Pedro Peixoto (USP) and Viana.

IMPA’s director-general defended the rapprochement between academia and the productive sector and cited IMPA initiatives that seek to maintain a close relationship with the market, such as the Pi Center (IMPA Innovation and Projects Center) and the institute’s undergraduate program, IMPA Tech.

“Why does this dialog matter? It must be because you’re here at this time of day. It’s not about providing a service, providing a service is no fun. It’s about doing joint research with companies. It’s about finding solutions with the theoretical component published in papers that solve real problems. And that implies a certain amount of humility. We mathematicians value our intellectual autonomy. We think things like ‘I’m going to solve problems that I find interesting’. We also have to solve problems that society finds interesting,” said Viana.

João Carabetta’s career is the fruit of an academic-market partnership. A physicist by training, Carabetta is now executive head of technology at Rio de Janeiro City Hall. He shared his experience and recalled that many of the characteristics desired by industry are also taught in academia. Among them, the ability to solve problems. “In the market, we want people who can learn anything quickly. Those who can solve problems. And that’s generally what we learn in academia. They give us a mysterious book to do a list of exercises,” he explained.

USP researcher Pedro Peixoto also sees the relationship between academic knowledge and day-to-day work in the market as complementary. “One thing I often ask my students is ‘Do you want to be users or developers? If we want to do development, understand what’s going on, theoretical study is important. You can’t understand what a neural network does, for example, without a basis in calculus, statistics and linear algebra. Learning exact sciences has a lot to do with it. We can decide on a career in which we are going to be an AI user, or a career in which we are going to develop AI. That’s the question. Do you want to be users or develop these new tools?”

 

IMPA Tech student Manuela Ronconi is one of the new generation of students who believes in the union between academia and the market. She said that this was one of the factors that motivated her to choose IMPA’s degree program. “When I came across the IMPA Tech proposal, I was very happy. I really liked the timetable and the immersion in the academic and corporate world. At IMPA Tech, we see a lot of this with our proximity to startups, with whom we do our internship courses,” said Manuela.

 

Another important discussion at the round table was the challenges still facing the rapprochement between academia and industry. The guests mentioned the difficulty of communication between universities, private companies and the public sector; the university’s resistance to promoting this conversation; and the market’s lack of interest in training academics.

This challenging scenario generated the interest of Victor Mazzoti, an undergraduate mathematics student at Unicamp (State University of Campinas), in the debate. “I thought the round table was great, it was the main thing I wanted to see on the day because it’s very hazy when you’re an undergraduate mathematician to see the future prospects beyond academia. There needs to be a lot of debate and it was very gratifying to see the direction this discussion took,” said Mazzotti.

 

Despite the challenges that still exist, at the end of the round table, researcher Gustavo Nonato left a message of encouragement and pointed to advances in the partnership between academia and the market. “This relationship has improved a lot. The productive sector already sees academia as a partner. Of course, there are still problems that need to be resolved. And this is a reality that will continue to improve in my opinion, although the speed is slow.”

 

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