Maths + match = medals! Leiden students win five medals at international math competition

Published on 23 August 2024

Two Second Prizes, two First Prizes and even a Grand Grand First Prize. Five Leiden mathematics students and their team leader have performed exceptionally well during the International Mathematics Competition for University Students 2024 in Bulgaria in early August. This even made for a Dutch record.

401 students from more than 110 international universities took part in the international mathematics competition in Blagoevgrad. Five of those are from Leiden University: bachelor students Lance Bakker, Casper Madlener and Lars Pos, and master students Tobias Schnieders and Samuel Tiersma. And they all came home with a medal. Pos and Schnieders both won a Second Prize, Bakker and Tiersma a First Prize. Madlener even ranked among the top 1% and finished 4^th out of all participants. In doing so, he won a Grand Grand First Prize, the highest award achievable. Never before has a Dutch participant managed to finish so high. An exceptional achievement!

Never before has a Dutch participant managed to finish so high.

 

Detecting revision errors

During the two examination days, the students were presented with ten mathematical problems. Most of these problems were submitted by the team leaders. The first problem on day one came from Mike Daas, team leader of the Leiden team and PhD candidate at the Mathematical Institute. As team leader, he too put in a great performance with improving the scores by detecting revision errors.

All problems were twice revised, discussed and entered at the end of every competition, often late into the night. Because this is done quickly, errors sometimes sneak in. Therefore, the team leaders are given the opportunity to rectify these errors. As a result, some students may still receive a higher score. This is how Daas’ accurate work helped ensure Madlener’s well-deserved fourth place. Daas himself was rewarded for his precise and hard work with a big hug from Madlener and with the fifth place out of all 63 team leaders in The Most Effective Team Leaders ranking.

Mathematical problem #1 on the first day came from Mike Daas.

Dedicated students

With these amazing achievements, the entire Leiden team finished 13^th in the university ranking this year. Of the 47 Dutch participations in the competition since 2006, this result has only been surpassed five times before: four times by Utrecht University and once by a previous Leiden team.

In preparation for the competition, Daas had organised several training sessions for the students. These consisted of theory, but mainly practice, practice and even more practice. That the sessions were enjoyable, was evident: a session lasted two hours, but the students often stayed longer. And that paid off beautifully!

Did you know... ?

• The IMC has been organised since 1994. Since then, the competition has taken place every year. This makes the 2024 competition the 31^st edition. Dutch universities have participated every year since 2006, with the exception of 2008.
• Leiden University has participated in the competition since 2015, with the exception of 2023. With this, Leiden University has participated in the competition a total of nine times.
• In 2017, most Dutch universities participated, six in total: Utrecht University, Leiden University, Radboud University Nijmegen, University of Amsterdam, Delft University of Technology and Eindhoven University of Technology. Leiden’s 2017 team participation resulted in its best team ranking to date with the twelfth place.
• The best individual Dutch ranking since participation in 2006 is the fourth place this year of our Leiden student Casper Madlener.

The Leiden team, left to right: Tobias Schnieders, Samuel Tiersma, Mike Daas, Casper Madlener, Lance Bakker and Lars Pos.

More information about IMC

The International Mathematics Competition (IMC) stimulates an inclusive and safe environment for mathematics students. An environment in which they can participate in challenging competitions, make international friends and explore their future field of work. The mathematical problems covered during the competition come from the fields of algebra, analysis, geometry and combinatorics. Most of the competitions have taken place in Bulgaria, although Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Macedonia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have also been visited over the years.