One Gold & Three Silver Medals
Students of HSE University-St. Petersburg gave an excellent first performance at the International Mathematics Competition in Bulgaria.
This summer, four HSE University-St. Petersburg students traveled to Bulgaria to compete in the International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC).
The IMC is one of the world's most prestigious student math competitions. This year's competition, which was held from July 28-August 3, hosted 77 teams (a total of 360 students) from all over the world.
Three sophomores (Vladislav Epifanov, Vladislav Mosin, Andrei Nefedov) and one junior (Vasiliy Alferov) represented the HSE-St. Petersburg team. Professor Ivan Bliznets of the HSE-St. Petersburg Department of Informatics served as team supervisor.
Despite the fact that it was the students' first time participating in such a large-scale competition, they showed that they were up to the challenge. V. Epifanov took the first prize, and the rest of the participants took second prizes.
Students from HSE's campus in Moscow took part in the competition as well. Students of the Moscow campus's Faculty of Computer Science took home one gold, one silver, and one bronze medal. And students from the Moscow campus's Faculty of Mathematics won three gold medals.
Ivan Bliznets, team supervisor:
The competition gives students a great opportunity to test their abilities and prove themselves. It’s difficult to get positions in the companies that receive insane amounts of resumes by merely being a good specialist. Many companies seek employees who can think outside the box, and these kinds of competitions help students develop this skill. More important, participants get to meet students from different countries and universities, gain insight into how education abroad is structured, and get a sense of what’s better about it, what’s worse.
How students perform in these competitions also attests to the quality of education at a given university. Of course, the situation is not always so straight forward. For instance, our campus is mostly focused on IT and programming, and our team competed against students who are predominantly math majors. However, considering the results, it’s safe to say the quality of mathematics studies in HSE-St. Petersburg is very high, and we have talented students. I think it is very important for a university to achieve and demonstrate these kinds of positive results in order to attract the best and the brightest students in the future.
Vladislav Epifanov:
I really wanted to participate in some student math competitions to see how far along my skills have come since high school. That’s why I immediately said yes to the opportunity to participate in IMC. And I received a gold medal, which means I’m good at it!
Vladislav Mosin:
IMC is a great opportunity to meet new people, get a new experience that looks good on your resume, and solve challenging tasks. It's a chance to compete with students from over 50 universities all over the world and interact with representatives of major companies. I have a lot of positive memories from participating in this competition, and I hope to do it again next year, as well as improve my performance.