Demar to be represented by IC student abroad

Posted in 02/18/2020


Danilo Alencar de Abreu
Danilo Alencar de Abreu

by Simone Colombo

(see original news (in portuguese))

Entering the scientific universe while undergraduate is an opportunity that USP’s Scientific Initiation (IC, Iniciação Científica) program offers its students. Through the program, young people are immersed in the world of research and have the opportunity to learn new methodologies and seek solutions to various problems in the world of science. Being a IC student means combining theory with practice, bringing the students closer to graduate school and with the potential to become new scientists. And the fruits of all their dedication, as well as the talent to seek new discoveries, can be harvested even before they are engineers.

This is the case of Danilo Alencar de Abreu (Materials Engineering), part of a select group of 10 USP students selected in the International Stage of SIICUSP (USP Scientific and Technological Initiation Symposium) to represent the country abroad. In 2019, SIICUSP, which aims to disseminate and monitor the results of IC projects carried out by USP undergraduate students, had 3,760 participants.

At EEL, 100 papers were presented in the first phase of SIICUSP held at the unit on October 8, 2019. Of these 100, 15 were selected by a group of evaluators to participate in the International Stage in São Paulo, on November 5.

Of all USP units, 560 students participated in the international stage. At the end of this stage, 112 received an honorable mention and among these 10 were nominated by the Scientific Committee composed of professors from USP to represent USP at events abroad.

The work presented by Danilo at SIICUSP seeks a new basis for the development of new metallic alloys (Titanium, aluminum, and zirconium) that can be used at high temperatures in the aerospace industry. Danilo, who traveled to France at the beginning of February to do an exchange, started his IC in 2016 in the second year of graduation. The student will soon publish an article in a scientific journal in the area, which is not so common for an undergraduate student. For the 24-year-old, who is in the penultimate semester of the Materials Engineering course, being an IC student was his best choice: “I am living things that, before becoming an undergrad, I would bever have imagined I would be living so soon”.

Danilo will present his scientific initiation work at Rutgers and Ohio State universities, both in the United States between March and April, at a date yet to be defined. Travel expenses will be covered by the university. He will have the privilege to make visits to the laboratories and to know about the research being done at these universities.

Success for Danilo and everyone involved in the research, in particular his advisor, Prof. Dr. Gilberto Carvalho Coelho.