The 1st Carioca Optimization Workshop brought together experts from Brazil and abroad for three days of debates, tributes and discoveries that strengthened ties between academic research and industry

The event was attended by mathematicians from Brazil and abroad, as well as undergraduate and graduate students and industry professionals | Photo: Leonardo Zacarin/FGV EMAp

With expectations met by the organization and the public, the School of Applied Mathematics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV EMAp) held the 1st edition of the Carioca Workshop on Optimization and Applications (CariOPT) last week. From May 5 to 7, interested parties attended lectures, mini-courses, tributes and poster sessions, which brought together applied mathematicians, data scientists, undergraduate and graduate students and industry professionals.

With the support of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel Foundation (CAPES) and the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), CariOPT 2025 prioritized application areas with strong intersection with Optimization and the lectures discussed emerging trends in the subject, such as machine learning, non-linear programming, algorithms for factorization of matrices and tensors and planning of machine learning rates.

Aaron Defazio, a researcher at Meta AI, related Optimization to a bit of his day-to-day life at the company that owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook | Photo: Leonardo Zacarin/FGV EMAp

Meta AI researcher Aaron Defazio was the protagonist of one of the most anticipated plenary sessions at the workshop. He highlighted an alternative view of machine learning rate schemes with the aim of making machine learning techniques more automatic through optimization. “The goal of the research is precisely so that professionals need to make fewer adjustments and think less and less about the technical details of the machine learning process”, analyzed the data scientist.

Next, Defazio revealed that optimization is very important for the internal processes of the company that owns platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook and emphasized the evolution of research in this segment for the technology market. “All AI trained at Meta uses optimization techniques as a basis for training the models. Therefore, they are the most important part of AI development. Everything is based on them. That is why optimization research is fundamental to AI. The main goal of our company is to publish such research for the benefit of everyone,” defended the member of Meta AI’s Fundamental Research Division in Artificial Intelligence.

Flattered to be one of the speakers at the workshop, Defazio is aware that he is one of the few researchers who prioritize optimization in their day-to-day work in industry, but he makes it clear that his work is only possible thanks to the advances made by academics. In the context, the scientist praised the work of FGV EMAp in the segment. 

]“I am happy to be able to contribute this research to the community and present it in the hope that people will develop new methods, as well as use them to train their own models. My work in the area of ​​optimization is nothing more than based on the theory that the researchers in this group and the students do. So, I am truly one of those people who is bridging the gap between optimization research and industry practice”, said Defazio.

The varied schedule of activities at CariOPT 2025 was one of the organization's strengths and attracted participants | Photo: Leonardo Zacarin/FGV EMAp

For several years, the Meta AI scientist has been working on adaptive stochastic gradient algorithms, the main type used to train neural networks. A PhD student at the School of Applied Mathematics and Data Science, Adriana Henarejos acknowledges that Defazio's talk and the experience of the three-day workshop will help her expand her horizons for her line of research. 

“I work in the Stochastic Optimization area and CariOPT is an event that is helping my research a lot, with lines that are not very different from mine, I was able to learn about new trends and ideas. And you realize that the Optimization area is widely used in everyday life and the good thing about FGV EMAp is that there is an intersection between Applied Mathematics and Data Science and, here, you realize, in practice, how much they go together”, assessed the student. 

Pablo Barros is Adriana's colleague in the FGV EMAp PhD program and, in his first presentation at a poster session - another activity of CariOPT 2025 -, he won the award for young researchers with the best paper presented. For him, the event will be forever marked in his academic career.

FGV EMAp PhD student Pablo Barros won an award for his work presented in a poster session | Photo: Leonardo Zacarin/FGV EMAp

“I was a little nervous. When I got the news, I was very happy and all I could think about was thanking those who participated in the event and were part of the project. It was an incredible experience, I was very happy to win after my first poster presentation. It was fantastic”, celebrated Barros. 

The student and the professors from the School developed a new method to solve a fundamental problem in the field of Optimization: Convex Feasibility. “We created a method that involves circumcenters and we achieved great results in theoretical experiments. We see it as a major breakthrough for the field”, added the student. 

Having the chance to exhibit his work at an international event and share ideas and knowledge with other researchers was more important to Barros than the award itself. It certainly makes the student feel more confident about developing his research in search of making new projects viable.

The audience witnessed new trends and distinct lines of research in Optimization and its Applications at the FGV EMAp event | Photo: Leonardo Zacarin/FGV EMAp

“CariOPT was fantastic. I had the opportunity to connect with many people who admired his work and to meet them in person. These were very meaningful conversations that I will remember forever. These were remarkable experiences, especially for expanding my knowledge and keeping me updated on the latest developments in this area, not to mention providing me with inspiration and new paths to continue my research”, said Barros. 

The event was held as a tribute to the 75th birthday of Alfredo Iusem, a researcher at the School and member of the Scientific Committee of CariOPT 2025. The Argentine mathematician, who has lived in Brazil since the 1980s, is one of the country’s greatest experts in Continuous Optimization.

Researcher Alfredo Iusem, a reference in Continuous Optimization, was honored at CariOPT for his 75th birthday | Photo: Leonardo Zacarin/FGV EMAp

“I would like to mention that I was very moved by this tribute. At BrazOpt, they honored me for my 60th and 70th birthdays. And now, for working here and receiving this honor at FGV, for me, it is a source of great pride”, said the researcher.

Coordinator of the workshop at the School, Philip Thompson recognized that the tribute “to a legendary figure like Alfredo Iusem, one of the main references in Brazil in Optimization” made the event even more complete in terms of the program of activities.

In his view, FGV EMAp is pleased to have achieved two major objectives with the workshop. “Firstly, CariOPT emerged as a way to complement BrazOpt and also bring together the Rio de Janeiro region and FGV in particular. Secondly, the idea of ​​the event was to cover some specific topics in which Optimization is widely used, such as machine learning and data science, and to integrate a strong element of the industry into this”, explained the researcher.

Philip Thompson, workshop coordinator, approved the goal of combining FGV EMAp's research lines with industry demands in Optimization | Photo: Leonardo Zacarin/FGV EMAp

Finally, Iusem also shared his joy at being part of such a high-level event. For the FGV EMAp researcher, CariOPT 2025 exceeded the organization's expectations and has everything it needs to be held again in the future.

“It was a huge surprise to see several researchers from outside Brazil participating in CariOPT 2025 and I am very happy. This is part of an initiative by FGV EMAp to increase the number of international events, covering the different research areas of its professors”, concluded Iusem.