Two teams of two students from the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia, won awards in the national mathematics competition, the 28th Mathematics Competition and Seminar (LSM), held by Yogyakarta State University on March 7, 2020, in Yogyakarta.

The first team, comprised of David Setiawan (Mathematics 2017) and Kelvin Tenata (Actuarial Science 2018), won second place. The second team, comprised of Aji Luhur (Mathematics 2016) and Andry Wijaya (Mathematics 2017), won third place.

The competition began with a preliminary round held on February 22, 2020. The preliminary round was held in 12 regions across Indonesia. A total of 149 teams participated in the preliminary round.

The theme chosen by the committee for the LSM UNY XXVIII UNY competition was quite interesting: TRANSFORMERS. However, the “Transformers” in question is not an American science fiction film, but rather an abbreviation for “Transformation with Mathematics for the Future of Science.” David admitted that he was completely surprised to win second place in the competition.

“I was completely surprised, because we only managed to get 2.5/5 in the final. So we thought we’d win fifth place. But thank God, we won second place. I didn’t expect it, but I’m very grateful,” said David.

Echoing David, Andry also said that he didn’t expect to win this award because he didn’t have any special preparation.

“I didn’t expect it, because I just enjoy participating in competitions that focus purely on mathematics and so I can travel. There was no special preparation, just reviewing the material one or two days before the competition,” said Andry.