The judges awarded a 4th prize in the “Computer Science and Information Engineering” category to 17-year-old Krzesimir Hyzyk, and a 3rd prize in the “Mathematics” category to Steve Mendeleev (19).
TISF is one of the most prestigious competitions for young scientists. From January 27 to February 2, 2024, it brought together competitors from 27 countries, including Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 600 budding scientists defended over 200 research & development projects in 12 categories.
The two Luxembourg representatives were selected by the Jonk Fuerscher National Contest in March 2023, under the aegis of the Fondation Jeunes Scientifiques Luxembourg (FJSL).
Steve Mendeleev, a former student of the International School of Luxembourg (ISL) and now in his first year of a Bachelor’s degree at Stanford University, presented solutions to a very particular mathematical problem: what is the trajectory of a ball in a three-dimensional billiard?
More precisely, in a rectangular cuboïd whose sides have integer lengths - called an arithmetic billiard - how are the points of contact between the ball and the billiard’s edges distributed? Watch Mendeleev’s presentation here.
This rigorous work, worthy of a professional mathematician, has made it possible to generalize to 3D the results obtained for a 2D billiard (article in french) at the University of Luxembourg.
With his “Local Positioning System” project, Krzesimir has developed an alternative system to the traditional GPS (Global Positioning System). He has designed from A to Z the software and hardware for an exceptional tool with multiple applications (from navigation to inventory tracking) and, what’s more, for 50 times less than products currently on the market. You can watch the presentation here.
This isn’t Krzesimir’s first “rodeo": this young computer prodigy, still in high school for a few months at the European School Luxembourg I, has been writing lines of code every day since he was a child and has already won several awards in other international competitions, such as the CASTIC competition organized by mainland China.
These competitions are always great opportunities “to connect with like-minded young people, while facilitating the discovery of new cultures” comments the new medal winner.
