HSE Students Get Gold, Silver and Bronze in International Mathematical Competition
HSE’s team has won four gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the International Mathematical Competition for University Students (IMС 2016), the most representative mathematics contest for university students. The team included students from the Faculty of Computer Science and the Faculty of Mathematics.
The competition took place from July 25-31, 2016 in Bulgaria and attracted 72 teams, including national (Belarus, Israel, Turkmenistan, etc.) and university teams (University of Cambridge, University College of London, Ecole Polytechnique, University of Chicago, etc.). Russia was represented by six teams: MSU, MIPT, HSE, Saint Petersburg State University, ITMO University and Novosibirsk State University.
All HSE students won medals: Vadim Kalashnikov, 3rd-year student of Software Engineering, Polina Svyatokum, 3rd-year student of Applied Mathematics and Information Science, Ilya Bogdanov and Ilya Dumansky, 2nd-year students of Mathematics, got gold, Gleb Posobin, 3rd-year student of Applied Mathematics and Information Science, got silver, and Petr Ogarok, 2nd-year student of Mathematics, got bronze.
Last year, Vadim Kalashnikov also won gold at this competition, while Gleb Posobin won bronze.
Although the competition is individual, countries and universities compete as teams (as at the Olympics). This was the first time HSE participated as a team, since it sent more than three contestants. The HSE team’s score came to 221, taking 11th place globally and 3rd among Russian teams (following MIPT – 1st place and Saint Petersburg State University – 2nd place).
Over the last academic year, all HSE team members took part in special optional mathematics courses for contests supervised by student competition winners, Vasily Astakhov, Grigory Ivanov, and Andrey Gavriliuk. This is an open course for all HSE students.
Registration for the course will be announced on its Telegram channel. There you can also see the problems, which the HSE team solved in order to prepare for the international competition.
See also:
Fair Division: How Mathematics Helps to Divide the Indivisible
How can items be allocated among participants so that no one feels short-changed? Alexander Karpov, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, and his Singaporean colleague, Prof. Warut Suksompong, set out to find a mathematical answer to this question. In this interview, they discuss how a model of rational preferences is constructed, why one cannot rely on a simple sum of values, and where an algorithm that asks a minimal number of questions can be useful.
HSE Students Win Gold Medals at International Mathematics Olympiad in Turkmenistan
The VI Open Mathematical Olympiad for University Students (OMOUS-2026) was held in Ashgabat, bringing together teams from Russia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and the UAE. Around 600 students took part in the competition.
'Sometimes, Finding Ways to Solve Problems Feels Like Trying to Cross Mountains without a Map'
Yulia Zaitseva became interested in mathematics in third grade, when her parents enrolled her in a math club, and she now holds a PhD. In this interview with the HSE Young Scientists project, she explains what an algebraic variety is, discusses operations beyond addition and multiplication, and shares her love for Kolomenskoye Park.
Mathematician from HSE University–Nizhny Novgorod Solves Equation Considered Unsolvable in Quadratures Since 19th Century
Mathematician Ivan Remizov from HSE University–Nizhny Novgorod and the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences has made a conceptual breakthrough in the theory of differential equations. He has derived a universal formula for solving problems that had been considered unsolvable in quadratures for more than 190 years. This result fundamentally reshapes one of the oldest areas of mathematics and has potential to have important implications for fundamental physics and economics. The paper has been published in Vladikavkaz Mathematical Journal.
‘Our Subject Is Absolute Truth in the Literal Sense’
What path does one have to follow to become a theoretical mathematician? Is there such a thing as a ‘mathematical personality’? And is it really true that all mathematicians are a bit eccentric? Valery Gritsenko, Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Head of the International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms, talks about 13-year-long referee reports and good films about mathematics.
HSE Scholars Win Young Russian Mathematics Contest
Associate Professor Yulia Zaitseva of the Faculty of Computer Science’s Big Data and Information Retrieval School and Research Assistant Ekaterina Nistyuk of the Laboratory on Algebraic Transformation Groups have been named among the winners of the Young Russian Mathematics research grant competition. Also among the awardees is Vladislav Pokidkin, a PhD student at the Faculty of Mathematics.
HSE University Wins Seven Medals at International Mathematics Competition for University Students
HSE students were among the winners of the International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC), which was held in August in Bulgaria. The medallists are students of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science (FCS) programme in Applied Mathematics and Information Science and the Faculty of Mathematics programme in Mathematics.
‘Our Result Was Recognised Not Only Within the Project Defence but Also on International Scale’
This year, the European AI Conference (ECAI 2025) accepted an article titled ‘Multi-Agent Path Finding for Large Agents is Intractable’ by Artem Agafonov, a second-year student of the Applied Mathematics and Information Science Bachelor’s programme at HSE University’s Faculty of Computer Science. The work was co-authored by Konstantin Yakovlev, Head of the Joint Department with Intelligent Technologies of System Analysis and Management at the Federal Research Centre ‘Informatics and Management’ of the RAS and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences. In the interview, Artem Agafonov explained how he came up with the idea for the article and how he was able to present it at an A-level conference.
'Today, Human Existence Without Mathematics Is Difficult; Tomorrow, It Will Be Simply Impossible'
Mathematicians around the world share a common language and continue to collaborate despite the challenges of recent years. The hub of mathematical networking has been shifting to China, where scientists from various countries meet at conferences and other academic events. Partnerships with leading Chinese universities offer promising opportunities to strengthen existing ties and forge new ones. In this interview with the HSE News Service, Valery Gritsenko, Head of the HSE International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms, discusses this and other topics, including what AI is and why the state should engage with mathematicians.
HSE Scores Best Results among Russian Universities at International Olympiad in Uzbekistan
At the Third Al-Khorezmi International Mathematical Olympiad (AKHIMO), held at Urgench State University in Uzbekistan, students from HSE University's Faculty of Computer Science scored best results among participants from Russian universities. The olympiad also featured contestants from Brazil, the USA, China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.