What is IMO?

I wanted to log about this for a long time but I didnt know where to start or perhaps, I dont know how to explain. Since my brother posted an entry on this, I just copy and paste it here but in different order...

My brother has represented Malaysia three times in this competition (in Romania, 1999; Taejon, Korea, 2000; and Washington DC, USA, 2001) and since 2006 (after he graduated for the MIT, Boston), he has been training Malaysian team to the IMO. He has been appointed as a jury (the youngest, perhaps) for the competition. He had attended the IMO every year that was held in different countries - German, Spain, Kazakhstan and right now he is in Netherlands as the leader of Malaysian team.

The IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) is an annual global mathematical contest which is considered the most prestigious academic competition in the world. Started in 1959, the IMO has produced a number of top mathematicians including winners of the Fields Medals, the “Nobel equivalent” of mathematics. In the 50 years of its existence, IMO has created a tremendous impact in mathematical education around the world, specifically on the development of talented students. IMO is the oldest, largest and most prestigious of the Science Olympiads.

At the IMO, students sit for two tests on two consecutive days, where each test consists of three problems to be solved in 4.5 hours. Students write their solutions individually. The problems are original and created specifically for this competition by mathematicians around the world. The level of difficulty of the problems is so high that a geometry problem in the paper was only solved completely by 6 students.

The Malaysia IMO training program, organized by the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society (PERSAMA), is a year long program to identify, shortlist, and train potential students for the IMO (More details at http://suhaimiramly.wordpress.com/imo). This program is run under the patronage of the Ministry of Education.

Malaysia won our first International Mathematical Olympiad Gold medal at the IMO 2011 in Amsterdam. Congratulations to How Si Yu, Form 4 student at SMK USJ12. He managed to rank #25 overall among 564 top math students from 101 countries.

His identical twin, How Si Wei who is also in Form 4 at SMK USJ12, won a Silver Medal. Tham Ying Hong, Form 5 at SMJK Katholik PJ, bagged a Bronze Medal. This is Ying Hong’s third IMO (he won a Silver Medal in IMO 2010 in Kazakhstan). Two members of the team, Anzo Teh Zhao Yang from SMJK Chung Ling Butterworth and Justin Lim Kai Ze from SMK Tinggi Kluang, both in Form 3, won Honorable Mention award. HMs are given to participants which do not make the cutoff points for medals but able to solve a problem completely. Another member of the Malaysian team is Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin, an A-Level student at INTEC Shah Alam, and former student at SM Sains Teluk Intan.

More about my brother :

Utusan Malaysia & Kosmo!. I have no time to search for more (yes, there are actually more), just dig up his blog. you'll find it.

IMO 2014 - Yay!

What is IMO? (here)
My brother went to South Africa (here)

And they have won.

(Click image to enlarge)

Wow this is a quick and easy entry. Two links and one printscreen.
ExxonMobil Malaysia must be very proud!

My brother in The Star

Taken from:

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Education/2014/06/22/Boost-for-maths-and-science/

Boost for maths and science

Published: Sunday June 22, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM 
Updated: Sunday June 22, 2014 MYT 8:02:12 AM

Thumbs up for maths: Idris (fifth from left) together with Prof Sharifah Hapsah, See and Prof Noor Azlan (third, fourth and sixth from left respectively), and some of the Olympiad participants (front row).

MALAYSIAN students will be able to improve and enhance their study and understanding of mathematics and science, thanks to ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc (ExxonMobil Malaysia), which has contributed RM444,500 towards the promotion of both the subjects.

The company presented RM334,500 to the Academy of Sciences Malaysia in support of the National Science Challenge, while RM110,000 was given to Pusat Permata Pintar Negara, which in turn would use the proceeds for the Malaysian contingent which is competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

“As a technology-based company, we believe that science, technology, engineering and mathematics form the cornerstone of any country’s socio-economic progress,” said ExxonMobil chairman and president See Kok Yew at the cheque presentation held recently at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

“Attracting young people to the study of mathematics and science is thus critical in ensuring that Malaysia’s growing technological needs can be met.”

Also present at the ceremony were Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, UKM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali, ASM president Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali and Projek Permata Negara adviser Prof Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin.

In his speech, Idris commended ExxonMobil Malaysia for its exemplary corporate social responsibility in support of Malaysia’s talent development efforts.

“It is with such initiatives that the private sector can help the Government to achieve its 60:40 targeted ratio in the Technical Science and Literature Policy by 2020.”

This year the challenge saw the participation of 2,891 teams from 363 schools nationwide. The semi finals will be held in August at Universiti Putra Malaysia, while the finals is to be held in October.

The team that comes out tops will join the academy’s delegation on a study visit to Stockholm and witness the prestigious Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in December.

Meanwhile, the Olympiad will be held in Cape Town, South Africa.

Each country is represented by six contestants and participants have to solve three mathematical problems within four and a half hours in each of the two days of competition.

From 12,000 participants, Anzo Teh Zhao Yang, Justin Lim Kai Ze, Khong Yi Kye, Shazryl Shafyz Zulrushdi, Tan Kin Aun and Yeoh Zi Song were chosen to make up the Malaysian contingent for this year.

Along with deputy team leader Irwan Iqbal Ihsanuddin, team leader Mohd Suhaimi Ramly* has been training the boys for the past year.

“We’ve held a series of training camps. And we have weekly meetings where they do the mock tests.

“They’re already good at mathematics so the purpose of training is to sharpen their problem-solving abilities in time for the competition,” said Mohd Suhaimi.

*(he is the rightmost person in the photo. the happiest guy)

Thank you...

...for your interest in IMO :)

Now you know such thing exists.