In partnership with 12 companies, students of Applied Mathematics and of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence presented 15 projects developed throughout the semester, connecting theory and practice and paving the way for their first professional experiences.
The presentation of the 15 Field Project 2025 projects brought together students, professors, and representatives from partner companies at FGV EMAp | Photo: FGV EMAp
Nervousness and the anticipation of showcasing four months of work shared space with the students’ enthusiasm during the presentation of the 15 projects from the 2025 edition of the Field Project at the School of Applied Mathematics of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EMAp), held on December 9. For the first time, the extension initiative brought together, in a single round of practical activities, 4th-semester students of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Applied Mathematics students, enhancing course integration and strengthening the proposal of bringing academic training closer to real-world challenges.
Throughout the event, the groups presented their results and discussed with representatives from partner organizations solutions based on data analysis, mathematical modeling, and artificial intelligence techniques. In total, 12 companies participated, many from the financial and technology sectors. Each group was supervised by a technical leader from these organizations, responsible for proposing the problem, monitoring the work’s progress, and evaluating the deliverables.
“The projects were very interesting and varied in terms of themes, with a very significant quality of delivery. The companies were positively impressed with what the students were able to produce,” says Professor Walter Wagner Carvalho Sande, coordinator of the FGV EMAp extension activity.
In addition to group presentations, the event featured a lecture by Accenture director Rebecca Barros, who spoke about careers in global companies. There was also a relaxed conversation with technical leaders from the Field’s partner companies, who shared experiences about the transition from undergraduate studies to the job market and answered questions about professional life.
For Professor Walter Sande, it’s not just about developing a good project. “I guide students on posture and presentation preparation. It’s not enough to do the work well; you need to know how to communicate it,” says Walter | Photo: FGV EMAp
From service queues to sports betting
Among the 15 projects presented, the variety of themes and proposed solutions stood out. Bryan Santos Monteiro, an undergraduate student in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, participated in a project in partnership with Rei do Pitaco, a fantasy football platform. His challenge, alongside his teammate Vinicio Deusdará, was to model—using machine learning techniques—the probability of different events in matches, such as goals, fouls, steals, or missed passes.
“Predicting probabilities is always complicated. Even if the team wins, that doesn’t guarantee the probability you estimated was correct,” Bryan notes. Throughout the semester, he and his teammate built and refined models, dealing with issues such as data imbalance, many players with zero goals across several matches, and careful avoidance of information leakage in the models.
While preparing the presentation material, they realized the scale of their work: “We had a lot to show and only 15 minutes. That’s when it clicked that we had really worked hard and had a solid product to present.”
Applied Mathematics student Samyra Mara was part of a group that developed a project in partnership with Azzas 2154, a fashion-sector company. Alongside Leonardo Veríssimo, also from Applied Mathematics, and Gabrielly Chácara, from Data Science and AI, she worked on creating indicators to assess the performance and efficiency of product distribution among stores. “The challenge was to understand how clothes should be allocated to each unit and create indicators that helped measure this distribution,” explains Samyra. The group went beyond the initial diagnosis and began investigating whether redistributing items could improve the company’s logistics performance. To do this, they applied concepts learned throughout their courses, such as mathematical modeling, probability, and statistical inference, particularly in the context of simulations. “When you move to simulation, you start thinking about how to represent situations that aren’t happening in real life. We needed to use the company’s real data to infer, for example, sales velocity and predict behaviors,” she says.
Data Science and AI student Jaime Willian Carneiro da Silva, along with teammates Fidel Luis, João Vitor Tomaz Alves Ferreira, and Walléria Simões Correia, developed a project for Stone, a payments company. Their task was to build a queue simulation model for the customer service center, capable of suggesting the ideal number of attendants at different times of day.
“At first, we thought customers gave up on calls quickly, but we soon realized we were underestimating their patience,” he recounts. The group had to model the probability of abandonment over time, combining probability concepts, arrival and departure distributions, and exploratory data analysis to understand queue behavior.
The students had 15 minutes to present to the audience the project they developed throughout the semester | Photo: FGV EMAp
Beyond the technical results, the Field Project develops skills such as communication, teamwork among colleagues who are not part of one’s usual circle, interaction with managers, and presenting results to diverse audiences.
Professor Walter highlights that the Field experience helps students who are more introspective and individually problem-oriented overcome this barrier. “Even those with a more reserved profile performed well in the presentations. It’s important training to overcome the nervousness of public speaking and to show one’s own work,” he says.
Interaction with representatives from partner companies brought an exchange of experiences, immediate feedback, and insights into careers in data science and applied mathematics | Photo: FGV EMAp
The relationship with companies is also a strong point of the program. In almost all projects of this edition, company representatives attended the final presentations, provided immediate feedback, and shared impressions of the experience. In some cases, participation in the Field already becomes a concrete opportunity for internships and employment.
“It’s a gateway. Some companies have participated since the first edition and practically every term they hire interns who went through the Field. There are already former students employed at the same organizations where they developed their projects,” the professor notes.
For Bryan and Jaime, who had always pictured themselves closer to academic research, experiencing a company’s day-to-day operations was eye-opening. “I realized that we can apply everything we learn here to real problems, without necessarily being inside a research lab,” says Bryan. Jaime adds: “I was very focused on pursuing only an academic career. The Field opened my mind to working in the market while still doing what I enjoy.”
Samyra, on the other hand, now sees how she can contribute her Applied Mathematics knowledge to companies. “People often think that an Applied Mathematics graduate will only work as a teacher. This experience showed that there is a wide field of professional activity where I can contribute directly,” she concludes.