Instituto TIM – Instituto TIM-OBMEP Scholarships

Scholarships enabling young medal-winners of the Brazilian Public School Math Olympics (OBMEP) to attend universities

Proposal

The Brazilian Public School Math Olympics (OBMEP) is the largest Math Olympics in the world, involving 18 million Elementary and High School students in almost every city in the country. Its goal is to stimulate the study of mathematics, arousing interest and curiosity of teachers and students, and revealing bright minds in the area. Many young people who do well in OBMEP, however, are incapable of continuing studies after finishing school for being from poor families and living far from big urban centers.

About the initiative

The Instituto TIM-OBMEP Scholarships are a study grant modality aimed at medal-winners of the Brazilian Public School Math Olympics about to commence Undergraduate Studies. Since 2015, 50 young people are selected, yearly, for the benefit.

To participate, they’d had to be gold, silver or bronze medalists in any edition of OBMEP, and had to be approved for attending Undergraduate Studies in a public university in Astronomy, Biology, Computation, Economics, Engineering, Statistics, Physics, Mathematics, Medicine or Chemistry areas. The scholarships are monthly-based, in the amount of BRL 1,200, and can last up to 4 years. After being approved in selection, and throughout the period receiving the scholarships, the students are followed by college professors that took (or take) part in OBMEP as Regional Coordinators.

In addition to the Instituto TIM-OBMEP Scholarships, Instituto TIM was one of the supporters of Portal da Matemática (https://portaldaobmep.impa.br/index.php/site/index?a=1), an OBMEP initiative that hosts over 500 videos with the entire Maths curriculum for the 6th year of Elementary School to 3rd year of High School and serves as a support material for teachers, students and the overall public.

Created in 2005, the Brazilian Math Olympics is held by the National Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) with resources from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations, and support from the Brazilian Math Society. According to César Camacho, former general director of IMPA, OBMEP has an extremely positive impact on all students and contributes to the future increase in the number of qualified professionals in natural sciences and engineering sectors in the country.

Partnerships

Results

317

scholarships granted

52

universities

3

classes majored

Acknowledgements

According to Minister Marcos Pontes, Instituto TIM’s support “allows the youth to follow their academic training, understanding that the government, market and society invest in their dreams and projects”.