The selection process is governed by the University’s and Institute’s bylaws. The official documents describing the rules of the process is Edital ATAc-030/2023 and the respective bylaws. This is an explanatory translation and not a legal document: while the layout follows the Edital, the subtopics have been reorganized and the presentation simplified.
The position to be filled corresponds roughly to that of tenure-track* assistant professor in US universities (*there is a so-called ‘probative’ period of 2 years, after which tenure is usually granted). The position is called “Professor Doutor 1”, or “MS-3.1”, and is full-time, called “RDIDP” (an acronym for a position with full dedication to teaching and research). The monthly salary, as of May, 2023, is R$ 14.761,02 (with other benefits and after taxes, this amounts to 150K BRL annually). Applications should be submitted by Dec 13, 2023 at 5pm (Brasilia) (or 8pm UTC).
The area of interest is Computational Applied Mathematics. The selection is competitive, taking the form of a formal examination, graded by a committee.
After a formal evaluation of the applications, those accepted will be listed at the Diário Oficial do Estado, and the examination part will be set for a date from 30 to 120 days after publication.
Applications should be presented exclusively by the link https://uspdigital.usp.br/gr/admissao (detailed instructions at the end of this document). It is highly recommended to look inside and start to fill in the forms many days before the deadline. For any inquiries, please contact the Academic Technical Assistance of the Institute by ataac@ime.usp.br.
Information and documents required for application:
- personal information
- a detailed account of academic background (the “memorial”), with corroborative documents
- Links to documents or websites that can be altered at any moment by the candidate will not be accepted as proof of the items included in the memorial
- certificate of a doctoral degree issued by USP or recognized by USP or recognized as valid in Brazil.
VERY IMPORTANT: The candidates whose PhD title has not undergone a local validation process should start the process well before the deadline of Dec 13. For this purpose, please go to https://www.ime.usp.br/pos/equivalencia-titulo/ and fill in the request form (“Formulário de solicitação”). As the form is in Portuguese, we kindly ask you to use some tool for translation, and if there is any doubt please contact Prof. Pedro Peixoto at ppeixoto@usp.br. Please send this request UNTIL Dec 06.
- official identity document
- for candidates with disabilities, a request can be made to provide the necessary conditions for taking the tests
- the exams can be taken in English, in which case this has to be stated explicitly in the application materials (the contents of the tests taken in English and Portuguese will be identical)
- candidates can declare themselves to be of “African-American” or “indigenous” descent – described here as “black, brown or indigenous”, or simply “BBI”, as a literal translation from the Portuguese original, see link below – and express interest in participating in the differentiated scoring. The legislation which regulates such declarations has been prepared with Brazilian citizens in mind and it is not clear to us how it applies to foreigners: we will update this paragraph when we know clearly how it applies to non-Brazilians. https://secretaria.webhostusp.sti.usp.br/?p=12343.
Remarks:
It is the candidate’s full responsibility to correctly upload the documents, and if the candidate does not remedy any irregularity in uploading an incomplete or illegible document during the registration period, their registration will be rejected. Moreover, candidates will not be allowed to submit documents out of time, even on appeal.
After nomination:
Foreign candidates approved in the competition and appointed to fill the position may only take office if they present a temporary or permanent visa that allows them to exercise remunerated activity in Brazil.
The candidate’s investiture will be subject to approval in a medical examination carried out by the State Medical Examination Department (DPME).
RDIDP professors must maintain an exclusive employment relationship with USP.
Contest (details)
The program of the contest is based on two graduate courses:
Introduction to Numerical Analysis:
- Solving non-linear equations: fixed point methods, Newton method.
- Solving linear systems: direct and iterative methods.
- Least squares approximation theory: discrete, continuous and orthogonal polynomials.
- Polynomial interpolation (Lagrange and Hermite methods), polynomial splines, error estimates.
- Numerical integration: methods based on polynomials and splines, Gaussian quadrature, methods based on extrapolation (Romberg method).
- Numerical solution of ordinary differential equations: initial and boundary value problems; single step and finite difference methods.
Numerical Methods for Linear Algebra:
- Gaussian elimination and variants: systems of linear equations; triangular systems; positive definite systems; Cholesky decomposition; gaussian elimination and LU decomposition; gaussian elimination with pivoting.
- Sensitivity of linear systems: norms of matrices and vertices; condition number; rounding error analysis; gaussian elimination with ill-conditioned matrices; scaling; iterative refinements.
- Orthogonal matrices and the least squares problem; the discrete least squares problem; orthogonal matrices, rotations and reflections; solution of the least squares problem; orthonormal vectors and the Gram-Schimdt method; sensitivity of the least squares problem.
- Eigenvalues and eigenvectors: basic properties; the power method and some simple extensions; similarity transformations; reductions to Hessemberg and triangular form; QR algorithm.
- Singular value decomposition: calculation of the SVD decomposition; some basic applications of singular values.
The competition is held in two phases, the first being eliminatory.
Remark: Candidates who show up after the established time will not be allowed to take the tests.
1st phase (eliminatory) – written test – weight 25%
2nd phase –
I – public hearing and judgment of the memorial – weight 50%
II – teaching test – weight 25%
Written test:
- The committee will draw up a list of ten points, based on the competition syllabus, and will inform the candidates 24 hours before the drawing of lots; candidates may be required to carry out other activities during this period;
- The candidate may propose the substitution of points, immediately after becoming aware of their wording, if he/she believes that they do not belong to the competition program, and the judging committee will decide on the merits of the claim;
- once the point has been drawn, the non-extendable period of five hours for the test begins;
- books, periodicals and other bibliographic documents may be consulted for sixty minutes after the draw;
- notes taken during the consultation period may be used during the test, but must me made on paper initialed by the committee and attached to the final text;
- the test, which will be read in public by the candidate, must be reproduced in copies which will be handed to the members of the judging panel when the session opens;
- each test will be assessed individually by the members of the judging panel;
- candidates who obtain a minimum score of seven (7.0) from the majority of the members of the judging panel will be considered qualified for the second phase;
- the judging panel will present the marks received by the candidates in a public session.
Judgment of memorial:
In a public hearing, the candidate presents his/her historical academic background. Each examiner will attribute an overall score regarding the presentation and the content of the written piece. The score must reflect the merit of the candidate and adherence to the area of knowledge of this contest and should consider scientific production, university teaching experience, activities related to academic community service and extension services, professional activities, academic titles, prizes, and so on.
Teaching test:
The teaching test will be public, lasting at least forty and no more than sixty minutes, and will deal with the program of the aforementioned area of knowledge, specifically referring to a subject included in the disciplines of the program of this contest. The rules are:
- The judging panel will draw up a list of ten points, of which the candidates will be made aware immediately prior to the drawing lots;
- the candidate may propose the substitution of points, immediately after becoming aware of their wording, if he/she believes that they do not belong to the competition program. and the judging committee will decide on the merits of the claim;
- the test will be held 24 hours after the the drawing of lots, which will be at the candidate’s free disposal, and they will not be required to carry out any other activities during this period;
- the candidate may use any teaching materials they deem necessary;
- if the number of candidates so requires, they will be divided into groups of no more than three, in order of registration, for the purposes of drawing lots and taking the test;
- when the 60th (sixtieth) minute of the test is reached, the judging committee must stop the candidate;
- if the candidate’s presentation ends before the 40th minute of the test, the examiners must award the candidate a mark of zero in the respective test.
At the end of the examinations, in a public session, each candidate will receive a final mark from each examiner, which will be the weighted average of the marks they received in the two phases, taking into account the possible application of differentiated scores (see below).
Candidates who obtain a final mark of at least seven (7.0) from the majority of examiners will be considered qualified.
Each examiner will nominate one of the candidates according to the marks they have awarded. The candidate with the most nominations will be put forward for nomination.
Differentiated scores for BBI candidates:
- The differentiated scores for black, brown and indigenous (BBI) candidates are only applied for those who were qualified to the second phase.
- The differentiated scores are applied to all marks obtained in the two phases.
- For each test, each examiner’s mark of a BBI candidate will be multiplied by a factor which is the mean score of the non-BBI candidates divided by the mean score of the BBI candidates.
- If the former mean is greater than the latter, the marks remain unaltered.
- The resulting marks will be limited by the value of 10.
Further information
Please find below some links with further information about our University, Department, Research in Brazil and the City of São Paulo:
b. About the University of São Paulo
c. Applied Mathematics Department
d. Science in Brazil: Go south, young scientist – The Economist
e. Boom times – The Times Higher Education
Detailed guide for submission
(Attention: the submission system is undergoing changes all the time, so minor differences may be expected. Please take this as an aid. If any doubt remains, contact us at ataac@ime.usp.br)
- Go to the link https://uspdigital.usp.br/gr/admissao
- At the top right corner of the page, click on “Cadastrar” (= “Sign up”)
- Fill-in the information needed. Highlights:
- In the mandatory field “Identidade de gênero” (meaning “gender identity”), the options are: “Prefiro não informar” = “I prefer not to inform”, “Mulher cisgênero” = “cisgender woman”, “Mulher transgênero” = “transgender woman”, “Homem cisgênero” = “cisgender man”, “Homem transgênero” = “transgender man”, “Não binário” = “non-binary”, “Outro” = “Other”, “Travesti” = “transvestite”
- In the mandatory field “Cor/Raça” (meaning “Colour/Race”), the options are: “Prefiro não informar” = “I prefer not to inform”, “Indígena” = “Indigenous”, “Branca” = “White”, “Preta / negra” = “Black”, “Amarela” = “Yellow”, “Parda” = “Brown”, “Não informada” = “Not informed”.
- In the mandatory field “Orientação sexual” (meaning “sexual orientation”), the terms are very similar to English.
- In the mandatory field “Estado Civil” (meaning “civil or marital status”), the options are: “casado” = “married”, “divorciado” = “divorced”, “outro” = “other”, “separado judicialmente” = “legally separated”, “solteiro” = “single”, “união estável” = “stable union/common law marriage”, “viúvo” = “widower”
- The field “Necessito adequações ao concurso por ser PCD”, meaning “I need adjustments to the competition because I am a person with special needs” has answers “Sim” (“Yes”) or “Não” (“No”). If “Yes”, a new field appears where you can describe your special needs.
- Documents:
- Type of Document: there are many options, one of them is “Passaporte” (“Passport”). If needed, please contact us for help.
- Número do documento (please inform the “number” of the document)
- Address information: “País” = “Country”, “CEP or ZIP code”, “State” (the options are adapted to the choice of country), “Cidade” = “City”, “Bairro” = “Neighborhood name”, “Endereço” = “Address” (meaning the name of street or public place), “Número” = “number of the house or building”, “Complemento” = “Complement” (number of apartment, or number of the house inside a condominium etc).
- “Senha” = “Password”, “Confirme a senha” = “Confirm password”
- “Salvar” = “Save”
- Go again to the top right corner of the page and click “Entrar” (“Sign in”). Insert e-mail address and password to sign in.
- Now the main page has a first Tab with the name “Buscar” (“Search”). Select “Inscrições abertas”, “Professor Doutor” and “IME-Instituto de Matemática e Estatística), and click “Buscar” (button below).
- There may be more than one contest: search for the one written “Matemática Aplicada” (= “Applied Mathematics”). There are two icons to the left, one is “i” (from “information”), where the personal information may be edited, and another icon (a person depiction together with a ‘+’ sign): click there and a pop-up window will appear.
- This pop-up window is the place where mandatory documents will be uploaded:
- identity document, front-and-back (do not forget the ‘back’, whatever this means)
- “regularidade de permanência no país” means something like a visa or permission to live or stay in Brazil. This is not mandatory (of course the candidate must follow the rules to come to Brazil at the time of the contest)
- “diploma de doutorado ou ata de defesa frente e verso” means the PhD or equivalent certificate or, in the absence of one, the document proving that the thesis defense has been held and the candidate approved (front-and-back, do not forget)
- a simple letter expressing the intention to take the tests in English
- the “memorial” (an extended CV, putting academic achievements in context); remember that the corroborative documents proving the assertions in the memorial will be uploaded in a second moment.
- Save at the bottom of the pop-up window. A warning will appear saying, in Portuguese, that “Registration will only be validated when documents supporting the memorial are attached to the accompanying tab”.
- After that, a new window will appear, saying “Desejo me autodeclarar preto, pardo ou indígena” ( = “I wish to declare myself black, brown or indigenous”), with the possible answers: Não (No) / Preto (Black) / Pardo (Brown) / Indígena (Indigenous)
- For any answer except “Não” a message appear saying “Desejo participar da ação afirmativa nos termos previstos no Edital de abertura de inscrições” ( = “I wish to participate in affirmative action under the terms set out in the Registration Opening Notice”) with answers Sim (Yes) / Não (No).
- Save and go to the next window. The two previous answers are shown and they can be modified (indeed, they can be modified anytime as you wish until the deadline).
- At this point, a personal photo must be uploaded.
- In this window, there is a check box at the bottom, saying “Concordo” (= “I agree”) to the long text before it. The text says that you have integral responsibility over the information of being black, brown or indigenous, and that lying about it will subject you to relevant laws and penalties.
- After saving, a new warning appears, saying: “Before completing your registration, check that the documents requested in the notice were inserted correctly, that they are legible and that all the activities mentioned in the memorial have been proven.” And a warning saying that it is mandatory to insert corroborative documents.
- You will finally arrive at the tab “Acompanhamento” (= “Tracking”), where it is possible to change documents, to alter the racial declaration and even cancel the submission. Moreover, it is the place where corroborative documents are uploaded, one by one. Use the button ‘Incluir’ ( = ‘Add’) and upload anything you want. We recommend uploading here the document stating that your PhD diploma has been accepted by USP.
- At the bottom, there is a timeline indicating all events associated with the submission.
- This area will be available to the candidate until the submission deadline. Modifications, additions and substitution of documents will be allowed.