BME Mathematical Contest

Time: 10 May 2023 (Wednesday) 14:15 - 18:00  
Place: BME, building Q, lecture hall Q-I  

Organizing department:
Department of Analyses
Head of organizing comittee:
Mihaly Weiner

History and description

This mathematical competition has been held since the 1960s (annually). Originally organized solely for Electrical Engineering majors, following the founding of the Faculty of Natural Sciences (in 1996) students of physics and mathematics, and later all students of BME were invited to participate. Since 2016, foreign students (e.g. the ones staying at BME with an ERASMUS grant) are also welcome; problem sheets are available both in Hungarian and in English.

To participate in the competition, no application process is required. The duration is 4 hours and the problem sheet usually contains 10 problems. Solutions are expected in a written format. Each good solution is worth 10 points; partial solutions are also taken into account (worth fewer points) and important generalisations and second solutions to the same problem may actually result in extra credit (i.e. a total of more than 10 points).

The competition aims to value creativity and the mathematical way of arguing. Usually students with 4 good solutions already receive a first prize. The total number of problems is high (10) only to allow the participants to choose the ones closer to their fields of interest. Therefore, the problem sheet is intentionally “colorful”: it contains a good mixture of questions regarding all sorts of different areas like analysis, algebra, geometry, number theory, combinatorics and probability theory.

Winners of the contests are usually awarded with a monetary prize as well. This year the monetary award is provided jointly by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics and Morgan Stanley, who sponsor the contest.

Problem sets of previous years

* The 2020 and 2021 exercise sheets are somewhat different because in those two years, due to the pandemic situation, the contest was not on site and in stead of the usual 4 hours, an entire week was given for finding solutions.

Categories and prizes

According to their faculty and whether they are first year or higher year students, the participants compete in different categories. (So for example an architecture student and a math student will not be rivals.) As the problem set is common for all, the point limits of prizes (first, second and third; awards with money) and honorable mentions (awards with no money) will be different in each category. Nevertheless, the limits are usually set according to the following system:

Allowed items

Every aid is allowed to be used during the competition (e.g. books, lecture notes and calculators), with the exception of devices capable of internet or telephone connection.