03-02-2021
Diogo Rodrigues and Stefan Sequeira, students of the Undergraduate Programme in Mathematics at the NOVA School of Science and Technology, were selected for the Gulbenkian New Talent in Mathematics 2020-2021 Scholarship Program.
The program distinguishes university students who demonstrate high academic merit and encourage the development of their culture and mathematical skills, supporting their work with recognized experts who exercise the role of tutors.
“Gulbenkian has already supported many excellent students to be able to publish scientific articles. This fact, combined with my taste for mathematics and for investigating new subjects, stimulated me to apply for the scholarship. The experience has been unique and has allowed me to experience an opportunity to be able to carry out a formal scientific research project, with the guidance of a doctoral professor in the field. The theme under which I have developed the research project is related to the area of Geometry. I intend to study problems of optimization of areas of polygons and conics in hyperbolic geometry. With this scholarship, I am able to strengthen autonomy in the learning process, as well as to develop essential tools for the investigation and writing of scientific articles,” explains Diogo Rodrigues.
Stefan Sequeira explains the theme of his work ‘Logical approaches to complexity classes.’ “I have developed some ways of approaching computational classes, and at this moment I am defining independent characteristics of machines for the class of computable functions in polynomial time, which allows a very useful and marginally different visualization of these functions. Computational Complexity, an area so rich, allows, in addition to many other issues, to group problems according to their difficulty, to know better what types of problems we can solve and the resources we need to resolve them, being, therefore, a very useful area these days. My interest in research and the motivation I received constitute the reasons why I applied for the program. This experience is undoubtedly an opportunity to be able, with the accompaniment of a specialist in the field, to carry out scientific work within an area as interesting as Computational Complexity,” he says.
The students will be supervised by Ana Cristina Casimiro and Isabel Oitavem, professors in the Department of Mathematics and researchers at the Center for Mathematics and Applications at the NOVA School of Science and Technology.
