Outreach Activities

Two special years for Brazilian Mathematics

The Brazilian National Congress officially declared 2017 – 2018 the Biennium of Mathematics (link in Portuguese). With this, our legislators wished to seize the momentum generated by our hosting of: the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 2017 and the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in 2018.

A highlight of the Biennium was Festival da Matemática (Mathematics Festival - link in Portuguese). The Festival was held in Rio de Janeiro in April/2017, with affiliated events throughout the country. Another important event was a special, Math-centered edition of the National Week of Science and Technology (link in Portuguese).

The Biennium has generated great interest in the Brazilian press and in society at large. We wish to carry this enthusiasm forward and sow the seeds for a more mathematical future for Brazil. The website https://www.bieniodamatematica.org.br/ (in Portuguese) contains updated information on current and future Biennium activities.

A history of commitment

The Biennium’s activities are a culmination of long-term efforts by our research community. Some of our best-known names have been involved with attempts to increase awareness and improve mathematical education in Brazil.

Over the last 10+ years, we have been engaged in projects of a larger scale. Here are a few examples:

• PROFMAT (link in Portuguese) is a nationwide Master’s program for high school Mathematics teachers that is offered in 100 different locations. PROFMAT is a joint initiative of the Open University of Brazil and the Brazilian Math Society (SBM), with support from IMPA.
• OBMEP (link in Portuguese), the Brazilian Math Olympiad for Public School Students, is the largest scientific competition in the world, with 18 million yearly participants, and also a nationwide educational project that includes teacher training programs, special classes, college scholarships for alumni, and a popular series of Youtube videos.
• OBM (link in Portuguese), the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad, is an older cousin of OBMEP. It is an advanced mathematical competition in the spirit of the International Mathematical Olympiad, with levels ranging from middle-school to college. During the Biennium, OBM was fully integrated with OBMEP.
• The M³ Matemática Multimídia (link in Portuguese) collection comprises multimedia educational resources developed for high schools by Unicamp (the State University of Campinas), made available for free. The material consists of videos, audio files, software and suggested classroom experiments. Topics covered range from basic geometry to the Collatz 3x+1 problem.

IMO 2014 team, awarded with 3 silver medals and 2 bronze