Participants from Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Venezuela also Chile took part in the Summer School 2012, organized by the Department of Mathematical Engineering and Center for Mathematical Modeling.
As every year, young Latin Americans who are in the last years in their universities doing Mathematics or Mathematical Engineering, postulated to obtain a seat in this school with all expenses paid.
Jaime Ortega, DIM professor and CMM investigator who was in charge of this activity, explained the selection took into consideration the academic background of the applicants. “We chose those who had excellent grades, but also in a position to do a PhD. “
One of the fundamental purposes of this school is to meet potential doctoral students through their courses and the final evaluation. “The classic way to enter a PhD program is that people send their resume and then give a test,” says Ortega. This school somehow replaces that exam.
“Topics in stochastic processes” and “Homogenization Theory and Applications” were the two courses of this school, and Julien Berestycki (Université Pierre et Marie Curie) and Carlos Conca (DIM-CMM), were the professors respectively. This school also looked at various outreach talks and visits to laboratories of the Center for Mathematical Modeling.
“Real Mathematics”
To this activity attended graduates in mathematical engineering, such as Sebastian Zamorano, who graduates from the USACH and is working at Ernst & Young.
Sebastian wanted to participate because his dream is to a Ph.D. at DIM. “I am interested in the area of control and optimization, and teachers here could talk about these areas. Now knowing this, I am more interested in doing my PhD here. “
About the school, he only had favourable comments. “The course has seemed spectacular. The department and the center are another world. In USACH, I have very good teachers, but the race is very mathematical and not seen many applications. Here, I had the chance to see applied mathematics and real math, “he said.
Danessa Chirinos from Peru, the school met all her expectations. “Having gone through this center, I'm motivated to continue studying, reinforcig some content that were weak and who knows, if at the next opportunity, I will continue a Ph.D. program.”
