A lecture on artificial intelligence and its impacts on scientific research given by professor Leonardo Tomazelli Duarte, from the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FCA), marked, this Wednesday (25), the opening of the 31st edition of the Unicamp Scientific Initiation Congress.
Until the 27th, the congress – which brings together students and volunteers from the Institutional Scientific Initiation Scholarship Program (Pibic) – intends to publicize the results of scientific and technological initiation projects carried out by undergraduate students from Unicamp and other institutions. The event thus seeks to promote interaction between researchers of all levels and areas.
Pibic 2023 received registrations of 1.339 works – 55 of them from high school students – involving 1.470 students. On Wednesday, around 550 works by researchers in the Exact and Technological areas were presented. This Thursday (26), works from the areas of Arts and Humanities and secondary education will be exhibited and, on Friday (27), from the area of Biology.
This Thursday, the lecture entitled “Building Bridges: research on interpersonal conflicts”, by professor Telma Vinha, from the Faculty of Education (FE), preceded the presentation of the works. “Pibic is an academic party”, defined Professor João Romano, Pro-Rector of Research at Unicamp. “The program is educational in nature, but it is also enjoyable. It’s fun,” he assured.
For Romano, the initiation program goes beyond what is taught in the classroom. Pibic works as a feedback element, making the student, after leaving for research, return to the classroom with a different view of things and the world, said Romano. According to the professor, Pibic teaches students to work with the scientific method and often shows the importance of teamwork.
“[The program] is an opportunity for each of you to enjoy studying, working with methods and loving good science – good science is a friend of the truth”, teaches Romano. “And the truth, especially in these current times, is a friendship worth cultivating”, warns the dean.
The general coordinator of Unicamp, professor Maria Luiza Moretti – who temporarily holds the position of rector – thanked each of the students for participating in the program. And she said that Pibic encourages interaction and that contact with other researchers translates into an enriching relationship.
“I would like each of you to try to figure out what sparked you to do research. But, whatever the triggering factor, believe that this type of activity will improve each of you as a person”, said Moretti, addressing the students. “And may this investigative feeling drive each of you for the rest of your professional life,” he added.
Academic production
The research produced at Unicamp accounts for 7,1% of national academic production and is structured around 24 teaching and research units and 21 interdisciplinary research centers and nuclei. This production also has 26 thematic research centers, linked to programs of the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), in addition to dozens of laboratories.
The environment aroused the interest, for example, of student Bruna Tofoli Tordin, from the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA), supervised by Adriana Bragotto. On Wednesday, the first day of the congress, Tordin presented the research in which she developed an evaluation method on food additives aimed at children aged 1 to 3 years old, in Campinas.
The student at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism (Fecfau) Ana Lívia Viscondi da Silva, in turn, showed work on rainwater harvesting as an alternative to complement the water supply for non-potable use in a sustainable office. Ana Lívia was guided by professor Luana Mattos de Oliveira Cruz.
According to Silva, the work was inspired by the model of sustainable urbanism proposed by the HUB International for Sustainable Development (HIDS), currently being implemented at Unicamp.
Among the more than 500 works exhibited on the first day of the event, there were also those by Jonatas Viana de Souza, from the Institute of Chemistry (IQ), guided by professor Taícia Pacheco Fill, who investigated the biodegradation of polymers derived from cocoa using microorganisms, and that of the Geosciences Institute (IG) student Gabriel Mateus Alves de Lima, who carried out research on pre-salt rocks in the Tupi field, in the Santos Basin, under the guidance of professor Alessandro Batezelli.
“I think this process of scientific initiation is very important, because at the beginning I didn't really know which area of geology I would pursue. Then the opportunity to obtain a scholarship arose. I got the scholarship and, throughout the work, I became convinced that I like this area and that this is the area I intend to pursue in my postgraduate studies”, stated Lima.
On the path of research
The Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Ivan Toro, said that the quality of higher education cannot be dissociated from the number of opportunities offered to introduce students to the world of science.
“More than completing academic training, scientific initiation helps to form a more human professional, more connected with society and with the solution of its main problems. This is an opportunity to gain a love for this type of work,” he said.
For the Vice-Rector of Extension and Culture, Professor Fernando Coelho, scientific initiation “is the beginning of everything”.
“This is where, in fact, a person follows the path of research and, because of this, you [beginning researchers] are, in fact, the path of the future”, concluded Coelho.
See the full congress schedule here.
Check out more images from the first day of the congress:
