Free Nonsense

A mathematician in the land of engineering…

By Ana Filipa Sequeira*

I hope that the title does not discourage some Inesquians from reading the article. For those who choose to persist, I thank you in advance and apologise if my story is boring... In fact, what is interesting about a career in mathematics?

I arrived at INESC TEC’s Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit (UTM), more specifically to the group VCMI [visual computing and machine intelligence], a little over two years ago. I came with a degree and a master’s degree (pre-Bologna, yes!), all from the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto (FCUP). This experience alone would be enough, not for a free nonsense, but for a book full of nonsense, but do not be frightened just yet. I was saying I got here a little over two years to embark on a new adventure! I was warmly welcomed by the members of the Unit, and more closely by the members of the VCMI, who all received me with infinite patience and companionship. And thus I entered a new world. Would this be a 'brave' new world?

I often remembered the "wise" words of my father when I finished high school and announced that I would pursue a degree in Mathematics! Faced with my decision, my father told me with a barely concealed anguish, “But what are you going to study mathematics for?”. My father, a doctor by profession and devotion, repeatedly confessed his worst nightmare: "I often dream of taking an exam in Mathematics. And I still argue that after so many years as a physician mathematics does not seem necessary, but the teachers are ruthless! I try to complete the test, but my memory does not help me and I just get rid of the embarrassment when I wake up and  I realise it was a dream.” I said I remember his words and I often said to myself words like, "But Filipa, why are you going to study engineering anyway?”.

I try to answer this question every day adding another line or just one word, depending on the productivity of the day, in this book I am writing. And now that I am somehow 'halfway through', the challenge that was given to me (writing this article) really pushed me to make an assessment of the road so far. Midway we can already look back with some distance and look forward with some proximity to the end of the route.

Looking back I see that in this environment I had the opportunity to meet and incorporate the "practical spirit" that engineering embodies (I hope my fellow mathematicians do not listen to me!) and use it in the mathematics that I studied hard with no glimpse of its applicability.

I cannot stop laughing as I always did at the story of the guy in a balloon that fell in the middle of nowhere. He finds a person and asks: "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?” and the nice person quickly replies: "You're in a balloon!”. Despite the hopelessness of his situation, the balloon traveler still had the common sense to state: "And I am sure you are a mathematician...! You gave me a completely accurate answer that doesn’t do me any good...”. Only now I'm not so sure if I am in or out of the balloon! All I can say is that a mathematician who ventures into engineering combines the best of both worlds!

*Collaborator at the Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit (UTM)