The third assembly of the Interdisciplinary Student Meeting 2022 (ENESIN22), which takes place on Monday (22), at 13 pm, will welcome geologist Jefferson de Lima Picanço, professor at the Geosciences Institute (IG) at Unicamp. Picanço will speak to students about the role of interdisciplinarity in the development of scientific projects and the importance of this approach in the search for solutions to complex issues.
The meeting takes place monthly to present the registered projects, explore new topics and facilitate contact between students interested in joining the groups in formation, in addition to clarifying doubts from students and other members of the academic community involved in ENESIN22. In the period between monthly assemblies, registrants can also interact with colleagues through a virtual forum.
In an interview with Unicamp website, Picanço highlights that multi, inter and transdisciplinary approaches are essential for solving complex problems. According to him, topics such as the environment and society, in their various aspects, cannot be addressed with disciplinary approaches alone.
“Funding agencies encourage disciplinary approaches that broadly fit into already established research traditions. This has advantages when justifying expenses. But they end up losing innovative proposals coming from unorthodox groups with multidisciplinary backgrounds”, criticizes the professor. For him, it is necessary to combine different points of view, including those of civil society outside academia, for science to advance. “At the same time, we must train our students so that they can be the multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary researchers of the future.”
Graduated from the Federal University of Paraná, with a master's degree and doctorate in Geosciences (Geochemistry and Geotectonics) from the University of São Paulo, Picanço works mainly with geological-geotechnical cartography and the History of Sciences and Techniques in Brazil. He is the general coordinator of the Research and Action Group on Conflicts, Risks and Impacts Associated with Dams (CRIAB), linked to IdEA, and which seeks answers to the repeated dam disasters that have occurred in Brazil, such as Mariana (2015) and Brumadinho (2019).
Professor José Mario Martinez, from the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing (IMECC), one of the creators of ENESIN22, highlights the relevance of Jefferson Picanço's work at CRIAB, an interdisciplinary group dedicated to understanding and mitigating disasters arising from dam breaking. The work of this group is eminently interdisciplinary, with geoscientists, sociologists, educators, environmentalists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians, among other professionals. “There are countless opportunities for interaction for students from different disciplines linked to the CRIAB theme”, says Martinez, who is president of the Scientific and Cultural Council of the Institute of Advanced Studies (IdEA) and professor emeritus at Unicamp.
At the assembly, there will be an initial presentation by the IG teacher, followed by a question and answer session. Afterwards, the already structured teams will be invited to make brief introductions to their proposals, open to questions and free interventions, with the purpose of recording the progress of activities and encouraging the interdisciplinary formation of groups.
“In this first stage, we are receiving applications from different groups with or without established proposals. Most of them are linked to human and environmental sciences. We have already had a meeting with directors of junior companies and we are trying to schedule a meeting with the DCE [Central Student Directory] and academic centers”, explains Martinez. “We are permanently open to inquiries from students from all areas. We hope to receive applications from more diverse areas that are not yet sufficiently represented, especially those in exact sciences and engineering.”
ENESIN 22 is a partnership between the Institute of Advanced Studies (IdEA) and the Executive Secretariat for Communication (SEC) at Unicamp. Registration opened on 15/9 on the IdEA website. Among the themes already proposed, there are public governance projects, urban interventions, public health, assistance to the homeless population, basic sanitation, education, economy and empowerment of minorities. Students will have one year to conceive, discuss and develop projects, in teams of three to six members, preferably from different disciplines. All questions can be sent to ENESIN coordination via email enesin@unicamp.br. More information and the ENESIN22 registration form can be found at event website.
3nd monthly assembly of ENESIN22
Date: November 22
Time: 13h
