A total of 66 teams, with 264 students and teachers from 10 Brazilian states, won gold, silver and bronze medals in the final phase of the 38th Unicamp Mathematics Olympiad (OMU), a project carried out by the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing (Imecc) of the university.
After taking place remotely in the last two years, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the final phase was carried out in person, at Unicamp. Unlike other years, the test was administered on Saturday (3/9), corrected in the afternoon of the same day, and the medalist teams were announced the following day, Sunday (4/9).
The new format allowed participants from more distant cities to receive the results in person, in an exciting awards ceremony at Teatro de Arena, on the Barão Geraldo campus. The event was attended by around 600 students and professors from 14 states, as well as university authorities and families of the finalists.
The state of São Paulo was the one with the highest number of medalist teams, a total of 30. Next are Ceará, with 18 medalist groups, and Pernambuco, with 8. Goiás and Minas Gerais had three and two groups awarded, respectively. Finally, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Rio Grande do Norte, Rondônia and Mato Grosso do Sul each had a medalist team. A total of 17 groups - already awarded for the general test - also received medals for standing out in the quality of the writing presented in the questions.
This Sunday morning, 230 students took an individual and optional test, for which around 40 were awarded prizes. The application was a test so that OMU can, in the future, be included in the Olympic vacancy notice, which allows admission to Unicamp's undergraduate course, without going through the entrance exam.
This year, OMU had a national reach of more than 6 thousand students in 2 thousand registered teams from 24 Brazilian states, in addition to the Federal District. The competition is divided into two levels: Alpha (for 8th and 9th grade students) and Beta (for high school students). To participate, you must form a group with three students, as well as a responsible teacher.
Marcelo Firer, member of the OMU organizing committee and professor at Imecc, comments on the importance of holding the final phase, in person, at Unicamp.
“The OMU has a long history with 38 editions and, in recent years, it has made some changes to its format. One of them is the holding of the awards ceremony together with the announcement of the medalists. The result was wonderful. It was incredible to see their emotion for receiving the medal and for being here at an important university like Unicamp.”
The event was attended by Unicamp representatives such as Luis Geraldo Pedroso Meloni, Extension director; Paulo Régis Caron Ruffino, director of Imecc; Lúcio Tunes dos Santos, Extension and Events coordinator at Imecc, as well as Marcelo Firer, from the OMU organizing committee. Rafael Rodrigues Procopio, creator of the Matemática Rio channel, on YouTube, was also present.
About the OMU steps
Students in the final stage of OMU participated in two online stages held between April and June. With an original proposal that differs from other mathematics competitions, the phases last a week and participation takes place in teams. The objective is for participants to discuss and, together, seek solutions to the problems and challenges presented.
All questions are essays, and the evaluation, in addition to considering how correct the solutions are, also takes into account the quality of the text and argumentation, in a comparative analysis.
The proposal is for participants to answer the questions with argumentation, justify the steps and present their reasoning. “The format of the test makes room for something fundamental for a mathematician, which is solving and learning to formulate problems. Therefore, each phase lasts a week for groups to discuss, research, and rely on bibliographic references to arrive at answers. We want to not only assess how much they know, but also what they learned throughout the test week”, he states.
