ICEF Student Among Econometrics Universiade Winners
The International Econometrics Universiade 2024, a contest held by Lomonosov Moscow State University, has announced the results of its Second (in-person) Stage. Among the winners is Anton Samokish, a third-year student of ICEF.
Congratulations on your brilliant performance, Anton! Continue to do well in studies and your future job.
ICEF students have been regular contestants in the Econometrics Universiade since its start in 2012, winning top places as individual contestants and team members. In 2023 the contest celebrated the absolute win of ICEF 4-year student Vladimir Averin and the prize-winning performance of third-years Polina Atovmyan and Andrei Bakhmutsky.
The Econometrics Universiade attracts students of top-notch schools in Moscow and other Russian cities. Held among 3- and 4-year undergraduates, its top places often go to ICEF students pursuing the International Programme in Economics and Finance and its Econometrics course. The contest grants its winners fast-track admission to some of the best master’s programmes in the country.
Anton Samokish
The Universiade was for me a way to challenge myself and really test my skills and knowledge. It sounded exciting to compete with some of the best students as a representative of ICEF.
I owe my win mostly to the knowledge I have gained from Mathematical Statistics (taught by A.A. Peresetsky) and Econometrics (taught by O.O. Zamkov) courses. And also data science course (taught by B.B. Demeshev). It teaches exactly the matrix operations that appeared crucial in this problem solving contest.
To prepare for the Universiade I mostly used the problem tasks from previous years. But this year’s contest was, again, unique. As many as two problems in this year’s set involved matrix operations, much to our surprise. There’s rarely an algorithm or pattern to rely on in this kind of competition. It expects you to think outside the box rather than use mechanical solution templates.
Oleg Zamkov (Programme Academic Supervisor)
Every year ICEF students show brilliant performance in the Universiade. One example is Vladimir Averin, last year’s absolute winner. Here in ICEF, Econometrics course is quite hands-on and teaches all the skills needed to succeed in solving the contest problems. In fact, each written test and examination (we have four throughout the year) our students sit in ICEF is in itself a contest and a serious challenge. The same is true about the University of London examination, which will take place next week. Instruction is entirely in English, making it difficult sometimes for ICEF students to interpret the Universiade problem tasks correctly. Still, many cope well, using the tasks from previous years to prepare. Anton was really eager to win, he did prepare hard and won.
Recently, we asked our students to compile an AI-powered econometrics test – a completely novel type of test we never used before – and the best we got were then included in the tasks of the examination. The tests we got from Anton were just excellent. Not only did he outperform his peers in that exam, he beat the AI. Yes, the AI that made those tests!