Epidemics, climate catastrophes or artificial intelligence are no longer science fiction plots. Many global transformations have already moved beyond the realm of “if” to become a question of “how” and “when”.
But this list continues to increase. For example, in October 2019, only experts were familiar with the coronavirus. In November, the first cases were confirmed in China and, in March of the following year, the infection became the pandemic that stopped the world, claimed millions of lives and profoundly changed our way of living.
How can we prepare researchers and professionals who can anticipate and find solutions to problems like this, which we don’t know when they will occur, or in what exact way?
This is the challenge that guides the work of Ilum, the higher education school of the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), a social organization supervised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Information, which today is one of the main institutions of research and innovation in the country. The Ilum project was conceived in 2020 and the first class began studying in 2022.
“The idea was to train young scientists who were interdisciplinary, independent, daring… Who had a lot of experimental practice, and a lot of knowledge in data science, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning”, says physicist Adalberto Fazzio, who was rector of the Federal University from ABC and director of the Nanotechnology Laboratory at CNPEM, and is now director of the school.
Ilum offers only one course, the Bachelor of Science and Technology, lasting 3 years and completely free. And only 40 students are admitted per year. There are other differences: students have their housing, transportation and food paid for by the school and also receive a personal computer to use during the course. Classes are full-time and from the first period, they already work in CNPEM’s state-of-the-art laboratories.
According to director Adalberto Fazzio, students are already starting to be scientists when they enter the course. Photo: – ILUM/Disclosure
“The pedagogical strategy is also different. The students work a lot on projects that they propose themselves or that are put forward by their professors, who are also young, who already have postdoctoral degrees abroad, are researchers, but are focused on teaching. And they They already have access to sophisticated laboratories, with equipment such as atomic force microscopes, tunneling, and all spectroscopy.
According to the teacher, students are already beginning to be scientists and are greatly encouraged to write and present their work. “We train students to work in groups, because today there is no longer an isolated scientist”, highlights Fazzio.
As it is subordinate to a social organization, Ilum has greater flexibility to change the course curriculum or subject syllabi, in order to adapt to new knowledge that emerges,
“Every week the teachers have meetings to discuss the content and we have an internal council that also carries out this assessment”, says the director.
As a result of combining this strategy with student aid, of the 40 students who started the course in 2022, 36 will receive their diplomas at the end of this year. In other words: dropout rates were just 10%, far below the rate of around 60% in federal higher education.
Students
One of the graduates is Gabriel Xavier, who left Montes Claros, in Minas Gerais, to study at Ilum. It integrates the team that was a gold medalist in a competition at the prestigious MIT – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for designing an ecological filter capable of detecting and removing microplastics and nanoplastics from liquids.
Gabriel Xavier: “The enchantment only increased.” Photo – ILUM/Disclosure
Gabriel was introduced to the school by a mathematics teacher, who was part of the committee selected by the Ministry of Education to evaluate Ilum, before its opening.
“He was enchanted by everything he had seen and he knew that I liked mathematics, physics, chemistry and saw that it could be a good opportunity for me. Then I started to follow CNPEM, and the enchantment only grew”, says Gabriel .
“We always hear about nanotechnology, biosciences, biorenewables and I was very curious to understand what this is and what research is done in Brazil. As time went by, this curiosity became an interest in being part of it.”
But he recognizes that all the help that Ilum offers also weighed heavily on the decision to participate in the selection process: “Throughout the course, we realize that the workload is extensive and reconciling this with a job is very difficult. In fact, This cost assistance is essential for the student to be able to dedicate themselves fully and definitively to their studies.”
The aid is especially important for students who live in more distant states and leave their family home to study at Ilum. In Gabriel’s class, 82.5% of the students lived in the Southeast Region, but the regional distribution increased in subsequent processes. In 2023, this concentration fell to 40%, with 25% of students coming from the Northeast, 15% from the South, 12.5% from the Central-West and 7.5% from the North. Furthermore, half of the students completed high school in public schools.
Júlia Amâncio, who is in her second year of graduation, meets these two requirements. She studied at the Federal Institute of Sergipe, in Aracaju, and was encouraged to apply for a place at Ilum by a friend, who participated in one of the editions of Cápsula da Ciência, an itinerant event that CNPEM promoted to present her work to students from different regions. from Brazil.
“At the time, I was very undecided about which course I wanted to pursue, because I liked a lot of things at the same time. I researched a lot about the structure of Ilum, the curriculum, where it was located. The discovery that this faculty existed, but it was in another corner, it had an impact not only on me, but also on my family.”
“This assistance was a very decisive factor. Although it was a difficult choice to leave where I live, it was essential for me to be able to settle down and focus on my studies”, he highlighted.
Student Júlia Amâncio makes up the group of women in the so-called areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Photo: Ilum/Disclosure – ILUM/Disclosure
Julia also forms part of the growing group of women in the so-called STEM areas – an acronym in English for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, fields of knowledge that were once dominated by men. At Ilum, female students make up around 40% of the total. And everyone learns that knowledge from laboratories cannot be separated from society.
“Even in our course completion work, our project has to have social relevance. From the beginning, we had humanities subjects and worked on the role of the scientist. Because we are living in a bubble, having contact with different areas of knowledge, and many people don’t have this access. This makes it our duty to translate what we learn. Another important point is learning to value Brazilian science”, says Júlia.
Gabriel adds that the college also encourages students to be aware of major issues in society.
“Issues such as the impacts of climate change, for example, involve not only science, but also social actions. We have to understand how to contribute in relation to science, but also understand that any and all types of social change have to be anchored in a process integrated with society”.
According to the director of Ilum, Adalberto Fazzio, the majority of students intend to pursue an academic career and Ilum has some shortcuts. Those interested in neuroscience, or engineering, for example, can migrate to UFABC and enter the fourth year of their degree. Similar partnerships with other institutions are already being negotiated. There are also students who can go straight from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s degree or even a doctorate.
Innovative Faculty of Science and Technology selects new students. Photo: ILUM/Disclosure
Selection process
Young people interested in Ilum’s proposal can participate in the selection process for the class of 2025. Registration is open until December 16th at website from college. The Enem score is used for the first cut.
After that, the 250 best placed are called for individual interviews with the Ilum team, who also evaluate an expression of interest text, included in the registration form, where the candidate talks about their personal and school experiences and why they want to take the course. Last year, there were almost 4 thousand registered. This year’s numbers are not yet finalized, but young women are the majority.
Ilum has already reserved at least half of its places for public school students and, according to director Adalberto Fazzio, is studying ways to apply racial quotas next year. Because the multiplicity of students is also seen as an important asset. “We have students from 24 Brazilian states, so it’s a very rich conversation between them.”
