A press briefing was held on August 5th.

The three speakers present at the briefing were Advisor to the Rector of KFU Lyudmila Nugumanova, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan Andrey Pominov, and Executive Director of the Center of Information Technologies of Tatarstan Tatiana Kamaletdinova.

This 28th Olympiad is the biggest by the number of participants – 324 from 88 countries. The 1st Olympiad in Bulgaria featured only 13 countries, and the previous one in Kazakhstan – 83.

Mr. Pominov talked about the format – the contest is held in 2 stages, and half of the participants are awarded, 8% of them with gold medals. Naturally, the participants soon become sought after by leading universities and prospective employers. Russia is among the usual frontrunners and exercises its host privilege by having two teams this time.

The cultural program for young talents will include trips around Kazan, to Innopolis city, and to Sviyazhsk. Opening and closing ceremonies are also expected to be of unprecedented scale for such an event. The closing ceremony, as Ms. Nugumanova mentioned, will be marked by the handover of the competition flag. The Iranian delegation will be receiving – the next Olympiad is scheduled to take place in Tehran in 2017.