From Harburg to Australia: The Hamburg School Board, represented by Thomas Bressau, honored the state winners of the Mathematics Olympiad 2024/25 at the end of March. The 96 award-winning students from grades 3 to 4 and the 96 prizewinners from grades 5 to 13 were celebrated by their families at the award ceremony in the Audimax I at the Hamburg University of Technology. The duo Azul provided entertainment with singing and piano.
The Math Olympics is a five-stage competition: in the first “school round”, the children have several weeks to solve tasks at home. This year, a total of 7,900 participants started in the competition (5,500 were from grades 3 and 4 and 2,400 from grades 5 to 13). In the second “regional round”, the competition becomes a little trickier with an exam that is written in different locations in the respective district. In the subsequent “state round”, the students prove themselves again in an exam that is centrally examined in the federal state of Hamburg.
On Wednesday, a total of 192 prizewinners were honored who had successfully prevailed in this state round of the competition in February. The top ten from grades 8 to 13 will now travel to Göttingen at the end of June for the national round to write the next exam. Those who also perform successfully there will be invited to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad – the fifth and final stage of the competition – in Sunshine Coast, Australia, in July.
TU Professor Marko Lindner, who opened the event, said: “Mathematics is a peaceful discipline, consisting of verifiable truths and constructive collaboration worldwide. Let's help preserve these values for all of us!”
