On the evening of August 21, the Finals of the 13th S. -T. Yau College Student Mathematics Contest (the Contest) concluded in Hefei. After a day and a half of intense competition, 101 participants from Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Science and Technology of China, Fudan University, and other universities won a total of 68 awards. Tsinghua contestants secured 24 awards, including 3 Individual Gold Awards, 1 Individual All-round Silver Award, and 2 Team Silver Awards!

 

Group photo of winning teams

 

In the Contest, Qiuzhen College, Tsinghua University achieved remarkable results, with 11 students winning 14 Individual Awards, 1 Individual All-round Silver Award, and 2 Team Awards. Yiran Lin, a student admitted to Qiuzhen College in 2021, participated for the first time and won 3 Individual awards: Gold Medal in Analysis and Differential Equations, and Bronze Medals in Geometry and Topology, and Algebra, and Number Theory and Combinatorics. Mingyu Zheng, a student admitted in 2019, performed well, winning Silver Medal of Individual All-round Award, Silver Medal of the Individual Award in Analysis and Differential Equations, the Bronze Medal of Individual Award in Geometry and Topology, and Silver Medal of Team Award.

 

Prof. Shing-Tung Yau presents awards to the winners

 

Peking University contestants won 22 awards, including the Gold Team Award, 1 Individual All-round Gold Award, and 2 Individual Gold Awards in Probability and Statistics and Algebra, and Number Theory and Combinatorics. University of Science and Technology of China contestants won 14 awards, including 2 Individual Silver Awards, 2 Individual All-round Bronze Awards, and 2 Team Bronze Awards. Xi'an Jiaotong University participants won the Individual Gold Award in Topology and Geometry and 1 Individual Bronze Award. Fudan University participants won 1 Individual Silver Award, 1 Individual Bronze Award, and 1 Team Bronze Award. Beijing Normal University and Nanjing University participants each won 1 Individual Silver Award. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) participant won 1 Individual Bronze Award.

 

Group photo of Vice Governor Hongwen Zhang, Prof. Shing-Tung Yau, and the winning teams

 

The Contest was hosted by the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center of Tsinghua University and organized by the School of Mathematical Sciences of the University of Science and Technology of China. Since the registration officially started in February this year, a total of 3,240 students from 525 universities, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, University of Science and Technology of China, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Taiwan University, registered for the individual competition, and 54 teams registered for the team competition, covering 29 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, and Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau regions. The scale of registration doubled compared to last year, with the widest range and the largest number of participants in history! The Contest, based on assessing students in five major directions: Geometry and Topology, Algebra, Number Theory and Combinatorics, Probability and Statistics, Applied and Computational Mathematics, and Analysis and Differential Equations, for the first time added the Mathematical Physics direction, named the Hermann Weyl Award.

 

At the award ceremony held on the 21st, Professor Shing-Tung Yau, Chairman of the Contest and Chair Professor of Tsinghua University, Hongwen Zhang, Anhui Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee Member, Vice Governor and Party Group Member of Anhui Provincial Government, Congzhao Zhou, Standing Committee Member of Party Committee of and Vice President of University of Science and Technology of China, and Qingfeng Liu, President of iFlytek, delivered speeches and presented awards to the students. Ming Zhao, Vice Mayor of Hefei Municipal People’s Government, (Zhongsheng Li, Full-time Deputy Secretary of Anhui Hefei Municipal Education Working Committee and Deputy Secretary of Municipal Education Bureau Party Committee,) Yawei Zhang, Deputy Director of Anhui Provincial Government Office, and other leaders attended the ceremony. In addition, the contest judges, expert professors and contestants from peer universities and research institutions, and representatives from various sectors, totaling more than 150 people, attended the ceremony.

 

Prof. Shing-Tung Yau gives a speech

 

At the ceremony, Prof. Shing-Tung Yau first expressed his sincere gratitude to the co-organizer, the University of Science and Technology of China. He stated that by holding the college student mathematics contest, China has cultivated a group of outstanding students comparable to those from world-class universities, and it has also continuously optimized the mathematics education in Chinese universities. He said with relief that Chinese mathematics undergraduates have now reached world-class levels. At the same time, he proposed that the next goal is to improve the level of graduate students, "Graduate students are the future of China," and high-level graduate students play a crucial role in the development of basic science. He expects that within 10 years, China will be able to cultivate the world's top mathematicians locally, publish the best papers, and produce world-class research, leading Chinese mathematics on a new path.

 

Vice Governor Hongwen Zhang gives a speech

 

Hongwen Zhang, Anhui Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee Member, Vice Governor and Party Group Member of Anhui Provincial Government, stated in his speech that the S. -T. Yau College Student Mathematics Contest has become the highest-level college student mathematics contest in China, playing an important role in improving China’s mathematics education and selecting outstanding scientific talents. He pointed out that mathematics is the foundation of the foundation in scientific research, an important core for promoting technological innovation, and a key engine for driving the development of emerging industries. As Anhui is building a source of scientific and technological innovation, he welcomes mathematics professionals to come to Anhui for exchanges and engage in scientific research here. He hopes that students will take scientists like Prof. Yau as examples, learn from their noble character of loving science and dedicating to society, their rigorous academic spirit, and their courage to constantly explore and innovate, becoming lifelong learners in basic scientific research, and making positive contributions to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

 

Vice President Congzhao Zhou gives a speech

 

Congzhao Zhou, a Standing Committee Member of the Party Committee of and Vice President of University of Science and Technology of China, fully affirmed the S. -T. Yau Contest. He stated that under the leadership of Prof. Yau, the Contest has been successfully held for 13 sessions, becoming an important undergraduate mathematics competition platform in China, from which a group of outstanding young mathematics talents have emerged. Over the years, students from the University of Science and Technology of China have also achieved good results in the Contest, such as Chen Gao, who has grown into a successful mathematician. He hopes to continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center of Tsinghua University, jointly cultivate first-class talents, continuously achieve high-level, original research results, and realize the goal of “China becoming a mathematics power” as soon as possible.

 

Qingfeng Liu gives a speech

 

Qingfeng Liu, President of iFlytek, taking his own entrepreneurial experience as an example, said that since starting his business in 1999, he has attached great importance to integrating mathematical methods into technical research. He stated that it was the combination of the synthesis algorithm based on digital extrapolation and experimental phonetics that truly promoted the establishment of iFlytek. The core of the third wave of artificial intelligence is the breakthrough in mathematical methods, and many researches related to mathematics need to be carried out, including how to achieve better results with smaller operations. This will greatly save our energy and make the AI big data industry have a better future in low-carbon and green development. He looks forward to deeper cooperation with the leading figures in the mathematics community and the rising stars of mathematics, truly realizing the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education.

 

Judge representatives Prof. Sen Hu and Prof. Haibao Duan give speeches

 

Judge representative Prof. Sen Hu from the School of Mathematical Sciences of the University of Science and Technology of China stated that holding the Contest at the University of Science and Technology of China helps the university promote the reform of mathematics education and improve its mathematics education. New students emerge every year in the Contest, and this year's contestants in the Individual All-round Contest performed better than last year. He congratulated the winning students for obtaining the admission ticket to the mathematician community. Judge representative Prof. Haibao Duan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has been engaged in mathematics education for more than 30 years, was surprised to find that the second and third-year undergraduate students participating in the finals performed excellently in a contest with a difficulty level equivalent to the doctoral qualification exams of well-known foreign universities. He hopes that students will persevere and continue to climb the peaks of science.

 

Award winner representatives Yiran Lin, Honghao Jing, and Xiangru Zeng express their thoughts

 

The Gold Medalist of the Loo-Keng Hua Award, Bronze medalist of the Shiing-Shen Chern Award, and Bronze medalist of the Wei-Liang Chow Award, Yiran Lin from Tsinghua University, stated that the S. -T. Yau Contest has built a platform for college students who love mathematics to exchange and compete, allowing them to explore the ocean of mathematics and feel its beauty. He thanked for the establishment of Qiuzhen College at Tsinghua University, which creates a good environment for their mathematics learning and research. Prof. Yau’s love for mathematics and his patriotic heart inspire them. The students of Qiuzhen College will definitely study diligently and contribute to the development of Chinese mathematics. The Gold Medalist of Shing-Tung Yau Award in the Individual All-round Contest, Bronze Medalist of the Wei-Liang Chow Award, and Silver Medalist of the Shiing-Shen Chern Award, Honghao Jing from Peking University, thanked the S. -T. Yau Contest for bringing together well-known professors and outstanding students from all over China. He said that it is enjoyable and lucky to discuss problems with like-minded peers, and he hopes that students interested in mathematics research can have a better learning and growth environment and do better scientific research work. Xiangru Zeng from the University of Science and Technology of China won the Silver Medal of the Wei-Liang Chow Award, Silver Medal of the Pao-Lu Hsu Award, and Bronze Medal of the Shing-Tung Yau Award. He believes that the S. -T. Yau Contest provides a professional platform for exchange and learning, allowing first-class students in China to compete on the same stage, showcase diverse problem-solving thinking, and exercise language expression skills. At the same time, having the opportunity to come into contact with top domestic expert judges greatly broadens his academic horizons and points the way for his future research.

 

Scene of the award ceremony

 

This year’s final judging work combined online and offline methods to ensure the fairness, justice, and high level of the awards. In terms of the competition rules, the team final interview was canceled, and corresponding subject interview opportunities were arranged for the students who entered the team competition in the individual competition, and the winning teams were selected based on the sum of the standard scores of the 5 subjects with highest marks in the individual competition interview. The Contest invited 33 well-known mathematicians, including Prof. Zhouping Xin from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prof. Xiaotao Sun from Tianjin University, and Prof. Shunlong Luo and Prof. Jianzhong Pan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to serve as judges, assessing contestants from basic mathematical knowledge and thinking ability, and comprehensively evaluating their basic quality and development potential in the mathematics discipline.

 

Since its inception in 2010, the S. -T. Yau College Student Mathematics Contest has gradually formed a unique brand effect internationally over the past 13 years, becoming an important way to discover and select outstanding graduate students. So far, more than 16,000 college students from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have participated in the S. -T. Yau College Student Mathematics Contest, with more than 720 winning students, half of whom have entered well-known universities at home and abroad such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Harvard University, Yale University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for further study. More than 50 people have been employed at Harvard University, Princeton University, Northeastern University, University of Paris-Sud, and other universities, continuing to conduct in-depth research in mathematics. Some winners have returned to China after completing their studies and committed themselves to China’s basic scientific research.