HERE, MATHEMATICAL THINKING INTERTWINES WITH TEAMWORK
We invite everyone interested to the
International Student Team Competition in Mathematics,
which is organized by the Institute of Mathematics of the University of Silesia in Katowice.
The competition takes place annually over three days in the first half of November. This year, the competition will be held
from November 6th to 8th, 2026.
What is the ISTCiM competition?
The goal of the Competition is to maintain a lively interest in mathematics, support mathematically gifted students, develop friendly relations between university students and teachers, and develop interpersonal skills in solving mathematical problems.
It is addressed to any student at any stage of their studies (bachelor's, master's, and doctoral studies up to the third year) interested in mathematics.
Stage I – Individual Competition
On the first day, the individual part takes place. Participants receive 5 problems to solve within 4 clock hours. There is one problem from each of the following fields: algebra and combinatorics, mathematical analysis (with topology and set theory), functional equations (including differential equations), geometry and linear algebra, measure theory and probability theory.
Stage II – Team Competition
On the second day, the team part takes place. Teams, which consist of a maximum of 5 contestants, work on solving 10 problems, this time selected two from each of the fields. Each team is in a separate seminar room and has a blackboard at their disposal.
In this stage, the result achieved by the entire team counts, and not just the individual contribution of the contestants.
Important Information
Participation in the Competition (in Katowice) is free of charge. Registration of participants and teams will be open untill October 30th this year.
The official language of the Competition is English.
Anyone interested may submit proposals for contest problems to istcim@us.edu.pl (see &7.2 of the Rules) . The content of the problems must be prepared in LaTeX using the istcim.cls class—the istcim.cls class and the sample file example.tex are available for download in the “Downloads” section. From the submitted proposals, members of the Permanent Jury will select problems for each stage of the competition. Each proposed problem should be original and should be submitted with a correct solution. In special cases, the Permanent Jury may also consider problems for which no solution has been submitted.
Further rules are available in the Contest Rules.
Similar competitions in Europe
- Vojtěch Jarník International Mathematical Competition held annually in Ostrava (Czech Republic), usually at the turn of March and April.
- International Mathematics Competition for University Students held (also annually) in the summer in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria).
- Vienna Mathematics Competition held (also annually) in the summer in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria).
- Open Mathematical Olympiad for University Students held annually in April in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan).
