International organisers

Timi has been an organiser since her first year of university, being the main organiser of the maths competitions for two years before continuing her studies abroad. Now (even alongside her full-time job) she is leading the international competition for the fourth time. In her free time she enjoys sports, spending time outdoors, singing and obviously doing maths.

Csongor is helping organize the international competition for the second year now, after he started his studies abroad, but overall this is his fifth year as an organizer. Earlier he was responsible for category C while studying math at university. When he is not doing math or computer science he likes spending his time doing a wide variety of sports like orienteering, volleyball or just spend time outdoors.

Csenge is the newest addition to the international organising team, but it is her fourth year organising overall. She was responsible for category C last year, and since she has just started her studies abroad, she is now the person communicating with the students. When she is not doing mathematics, she likes spending her time dancing, singing or eating.

Hungarian organisers

The organising team traditionally consists of young people, mostly university students studying maths. This dates back to the early years of the competition, and ever since then, we can regularly welcome former competitors as new organisers. The success of the competition depends on this community, consisting of 30 to 70 people. Some of them have been organisers for 10 years already (and still take part enthusiastically, even alongside a full-time job) and some of them take important responsibilities as first-year undergraduates already.

History

Plenty of mathematics contests are traditionally held in Hungary. From primary schoolers to university students, everybody can find a contest that fits their age and qualifications. These are mostly individual contests where the participants sit down in a room for a few hours, working on the problems quietly. However at the Dürer Competition, there are teams of 3 taking part. For the duration of the contest each team works together to solve the problems, so the contestants can experience the benefits of cooperative thinking. Our experience shows that the majority of students are happier and more relaxed than during an individual contest.

It is a very important goal for us to set interesting problems to show the beauty of mathematics and the joy of thinking to lots of students. We also wish to include as many original problems as possible. In each year, about 150 problems appear on the contest — of course not all can be original, but we invent most of the harder problems on our own.