A view of the Tel Aviv University campus. Photo: Ido Perelmutter via Wikimedia Commons.

Israel’s national student team has won the International Mathematics Competition for University Students, Tel Aviv University announced on Tuesday.

The global competition involving 546 students from 96 universities took place online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the Israeli team came in first for team rankings. It also made the top ten for personal rankings.

During the competition, the participants answered questions on Algebra, Analysis (Real and Complex), Geometry,and Combinatorics. The answers were evaluated by team leaders and academics under the direction of the competition’s jury.

The Israeli team was composed of five students from Tel Aviv University and one from Bar-Ilan University. The team was coached by Dan Carmon and Lev Radzivilovsky of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Tel Aviv University.

Student Shvo Regavim said of his team’s victory, “It feels great. The competition was hard, we were short on time, trying to answer all the questions, and I’m glad we achieved all the goals we set for ourselves.”

“On a personal level, this victory is a major achievement, but I mostly enjoyed the challenge of solving high-level mathematical exercises,” he added.

Eilan Solan of Tel Aviv University, who supervised the team, commented, “I’m proud of our excellent students that brought great honor to the country and to the university.”

“The Israeli students were competing against the best young minds in the world, and showed impressive mathematical knowledge, along with creativity and improvisation skills, which allowed them to solve very complex equations under restricting time limits and in a competitive environment,” he noted. “I’m sure that those talented students will lead the Israeli market and academia to many achievements.”

Carmon called the competition “hard and challenging,” adding, “Our students successfully competed against very skilled and strong students from around the world.”

“Making the competition online forced us all to make the needed adjustments,” he said. “The Israeli team showed very high skills and I’m proud of the students and their impressive achievement.”