Two students from the University of Warsaw and one from each the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń won the first prizes in the 21st International Mathematical Competition for University Students in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.
"It is a really difficult olympiad, which gathers world\'s leading mathematicians. Only very good teams of students can participate. I think that the biggest challenge is solving complex mathematical problems under time pressure" - said in an interview with PAP supervisor of a four-team of students from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Dr. Robert Skiba.
This year\'s competition attracted 324 participants from 73 universities in Europe, Asia and the Americas. As in previous years, also this time the students had to solve 10 problems in two days: five per day. They had an average of one hour for each problem, and if someone found a solution before in a shorter period, he or she would gain more time to work on the next mathematical problem.
First prizes were awarded to students who solved at least six problems in the competition. 67 students (about 20 percent of all participants) won first prizes, including four Polish students.
Poles also won second and third prizes, and honourable mentions.
Dr. Skiba emphasised that in the case of the team from Toruń, preparations for the competition lasted about a year, four hours per week. During that time, students were solving problems that appeared during previous international olympiads.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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