Maths Olympics
Now officially known as the Mathematics Championships, these are competitions for high school students where participants must solve mathematical problems through ingenuity and creativity. The aim of the initiative is to encourage students to develop a particular mathematical thinking that is useful in solving the typical problems faced by a mathematician during his or her career, while at the same time showing them a different kind of mathematics from that learned so far that can develop in them an even greater interest in the subject.
The Department of Mathematics and Applications support the local stages and also organises courses for high school students and teachers who wish to prepare for these competitions. Below is more information on the initiatives:
Preparation Courses
The course for students aims, through sessions of guided exercises and small theoretical explanations, to prepare students for the district competition and, in perspective, the national competition, balancing between the exposition of specific contents and techniques of the four traditional “Olympic” disciplines (algebra, combinatorics, geometry, number theory) and the focus on how to approach demonstration problems, which have always been a crucial point of the most advanced competitions.
The courses for teachers aim to provide both methodological and educational tools as well as content foundations to best set up training and preparation sessions for their own schools, also highlighting the differences with the teaching of the curriculum, and will try to stimulate critical reasoning and revision skills in the use of the available educational material.
Next Edition
Preparation Course 2026 - See Italian Page
District Competition
The District Competition takes place in February at the University of Milano-Bicocca and represents the second stage of the Olympiad where participants will have to individually solve mathematical problems of a different nature. At the end of the competition, on the basis of the results, the students of the Milano and Monza-Brianza Districts will be selected to participate at the National Final to be held in Cesenatico at the beginning of May.
Next Edition
District Competition 2026 - See Italian Page
Team Competition
The Team Competition takes place in March and, unlike the District Competition, is a group competition where the ability of the members (7 from the same institute) of each team to collaborate in solving assigned problems within a certain time limit will be tested. It is a real-time point-to-point challenge where the students, once they have solved a problem, race to deliver the result by checking the updated ranking on a scoreboard. The most difficult problems that have not yet been solved go up in score over time. At the end, the winning teams will gain access to the National Semifinals (and eventually the Final) to be held in Cesenatico in May.
Next Edition
Team Competition 2026 - See Italian Page
The competition was won by Liceo Ferraris of Torino, more than 500 points behind the runner-up, the Liceo Da Vinci of Milano. Liceo Grassi of Lecco closed the podium.
Competition Text and Solutions
Event sponsored by the Metropolitan City of Milano and Bending Spoons, a company leader in the field of mobile app development and more.
The event is part of MEETme@School, a project aimed at organising activities dedicated to schools of all levels. The initiative, funded by the European Union, was created with the aim of creating opportunities for direct encounters between students and researchers, through innovative educational activities, in order to stimulate scientific curiosity from a younger age.
GaS 2024
The competition was won again this year by Volta Institute of Milano, with a gap of more than 300 points over the second classified, Da Vinci-Pascoli Institute of Gallarate. Da Vinci Institute of Milano closed the podium.
GaS 2023
The competition was won by the Volta Institute of Milano, with a gap of more than 200 points over the second classified, the Grassi Institute of Saronno. Agnesi Institute of Merate closed the podium. Together with the fourth and fifth place winners, the Majorana Institute of Desio and the Da Vinci-Pascoli Institute of Gallarate, they will move on to the next stage and take part in the National Semifinals, on 5 May in Cesenatico.
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