Five Bandung Institute of Technology students won achievements in the 2019 International Mathematics Competition (IMC) held at the American University of Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria on July 28 – August 3, 2019. They won two gold, two silver and one bronze medals.
The gold medal was won by Farras Mohammad hibban Faddila (Informatics 2018) and Muhammad Afifurahman (Mathematics 2016). While the silver medal was won by Adrian Ramanda (Chemical Engineering 2018) and Rubio Gunawan (Mathematics 2017). Then for the bronze medal won by Muhammad Rizki Fadillah (Mathematics 2015).
The five ITB students were 2019 National Olympiad of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (ON-MIPA) medal organized by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (Kemenristekdikti). The ON-MIPA medalists totaling 20 people from various universities in Indonesia, must be selected first in Puncak, Bogor from 13-16 June 2019. The selection results were chosen by six students who would represent Indonesia in the 2019 IMC competition with five of them from ITB and one from UI.
In the competition, students were asked to solve Mathematics problems for ten questions that were worked on for two days. In one day, students were given 5 questions with a duration of 5 hours, after that the jury immediately checked the answer sheets and announced a temporary ranking that same day.
On the first day, Farras, who is one of the Indonesian teams, won fifth place from hundreds of participants from all over the world. Even though on the second day Farras’s ranking dropped, he still managed to win a gold medal. “When the test is taken it is cool, because when it’s relaxed the test runs smoothly. Then beforehand I had prepared the material beforehand, “said Farras.
The Indonesian team itself collectively managed to occupy the 16th position out of 77 teams participating in the 2019 IMC. Farras said that the IMC competition was not just a mathematical competition, but also brought together students around the world.
In addition to the Mathematics competition, at 2019 IMC also contains other activities such as playing football and joint discussions so that they can get acquainted with other teams. In the competition, participants mostly came from European countries such as Greece, Switzerland, Czech, Israel and Russia. “The team from Israel and Russia is the most formidable team in the 2019 IMC competition,” Farras said when met by an ITB Public Relations Reporter on Thursday (08/08/2019). In the interview Farras advised that other student friends can study consistently and don’t be shy about asking more experts.
Besides Farras, Muhammad Afifurahman who also won the gold medal gave an extraordinary impression on the event. Besides being able to take part in a prestigious competition, another thing he can get is to learn customs in other countries and get to know a new language. “Exciting, it was my first trip to Europe and represent Indonesia. It’s cool because I can learn customs in other countries, feel, listen to other languages almost every day, “Afif said.
Reporter: Deo Fernando (Entrepreneurship, 2018)