At the award ceremony of the First UNNC Mathematics Olympiad Competition on 13 May, Professor Behrouz Emamizadeh, Head of Department of Mathematical Sciences, presented medals to the 13 students who won the competition.

The UNNC Mathematics Olympiad – a qualification test for 29th International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC) – received 80 applications since its launch. Two gold medals, four silver medals and seven bronze medals were awarded to students.

All contestants participating in this UNNC Mathematics Olympiad are also eligible to participate in the Intensive Training Course organised by the Department of Mathematical Sciences during the summer. The medalists will also have the opportunity to represent UNNC in the 29th International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC). 

In addition to students from Mathematics and Applied Mathematics and Statistics, the competition participants also came from other non-Maths degree programmes such as Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Computer Science. The organiser of the competition, Professor Behrouz Emamizadeh, Head of Department of Mathematical Sciences, said that he was very pleased to see many contestants were from outside of the department which demonstrated the popularity of mathematics amongst non-maths majors.

"Mathematical knowledge is also crucial for students majoring in other sciences and engineering. Learning advanced mathematics not only cultivates the professional knowledge of science and engineering students in the field of mathematics, but also greatly improves their thinking ability and problem-solving skills. These skills are sought-after by both universities for their further studies and enterprises. "

Academician Shing-Tung Yau, a Chinese-American mathematician, mentioned the importance of mathematics and basic science in applied science at the 2019 ZGC Forum. He believes that for decades, mathematics has been an important support for the entire society. The important tools behind technologies such as intelligence are actually mathematics. At the same time, in order to solve scientific problems in science and engineering, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on relevant mathematical theories. Therefore, this Mathematics Olympiad Competition made sure to invite students across the whole university to participate, in the hope that everyone can better master mathematical methods and apply them to their own fields. In the future, the Faculty of Science and Engineering will also launch more student-centred extracurricular programmes to enhance students’ campus experience and core competitiveness.

We wish the selected students all the best in upcoming the 29th International Mathematics Competition for University Students.