Applied Mathematics and Computation

The degree in Applied Mathematics and Computation offers sound preparation in Mathematics and in its applications to Science and Engineering. Students may specialize in one of four areas: Pure Mathematics, Numerical Analysis, Statistics, or Computation Science. This allows them to integrate immediately into the labour market, in activities linked to banks, insurance companies or industry. It is also oriented to the 2 ndcycle programmes, either in Mathematics or in other areas of science and technology with a strong mathematics component, such as engineering or economy. The program may also be the beginning of a research career in pure or applied Mathematics.

ost of the alumni who graduated in mathematics from the IST in the past 20 years, were very quickly integrated into the Portuguese or international job market, and have developed successful professional careers in institutions dedicated to many different activities, such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, information technologies, market research, consulting and industry. They have pursued a variety of different career profiles, but frequently connected to computer science, statistics or management. A minority of students have also pursued post-graduate studies with great success at internationally renowned universities, and have gone on to develop academic careers and to work in scientific research. In some cases, former students have started their own companies, for instance, dedicated to consultancy in the area of information technology.

Among the Portuguese and international companies and institutions that hire IST students graduating in Mathematics, we can find the following ones: Accenture, Alcatel, Altitude, ATX-Software, AXA Seguros, European Central Bank, Banco de Portugal, BPI, BES, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Critical Software, CTT, Delloite, DMR Consulting, Edinfor, EDP, European Space Agency (ESA), IBM, Império-Bonança, IST, McKinsey, Megamedia, Microsoft, Millennium-BCP, Ministério das Finanças, NovaBase, Oracle, Price-Waterhouse, PT, Reditus, Reuters, Safira, Siemens, Sinfic, Sonae.

The increasing importance of high technology for the global economy, as well as the increasing interdisciplinarity between different branches of science, imply very encouraging job prospects for mathematicians in the future, both in Portugal and abroad. This includes opportunities to create small specialized companies with a very high emphasis on scientific and technological innovation. In this regard, one should point out several new technological areas, with a very high mathematical content, such as information security, computational biology, network optimization, robotics, quantum information and computation, and nanotechnology.