Programs · Cycles · Schedule

One area at a time, taught well.

Launched in September 2024, the Academy completed its first year with a weeklong onsite intensive at NYU Abu Dhabi in June 2025. Since September 2025, its second year has moved through four cycles of olympiad mathematics. Each cycle closes with teacher presentations.

Format

One coach, one cycle, one or two related areas.

A guest coach leads each cycle through one or two related areas. Live online sessions come with full written notes, and participant presentations close the cycle.

Online live sessions

Approximately biweekly weekend sessions, each led by a guest coach and hosted on the NYU Abu Dhabi Zoom platform. Sessions are normally scheduled on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday in the late afternoon, subject to coach availability and regional time differences.

  • Opening and orientation (~10 min)
  • Lecture and worked exposition (~80 min)
  • Break (~15 min)
  • Collaborative problem solving (~75 min)
  • Accompanying LaTeX notes for every session

Year One capstone (June 2025)

Year One concluded with a weeklong onsite intensive at NYU Abu Dhabi in June 2025, a single capstone bringing together the year's participants and coaches.

  • 16 to 20 June 2025, A6 Building, NYU Abu Dhabi
  • Daily lectures and problem solving sessions with guest coaches
  • Hosted by SITE at NYU Abu Dhabi

Cycles to date

A short history.

The Academy launched in September 2024. Year One closed with an onsite intensive at NYU Abu Dhabi in June 2025. Year Two has run four cycles since September 2025, each closing with teacher teacher presentations.

Year One · 2024 to 2025

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September 2024 to June 2025

Year One · Foundations of olympiad training

Online sessions across algebra, geometry, number theory and combinatorics, closing with the inaugural onsite intensive at NYU Abu Dhabi, 16 to 20 June 2025.

Year Two · 2025 to 2026

1

September to October 2025

Cycle 1 · Olympiad Geometry & Number Theory

Coach: Melih Üçer. Four sessions: angle chasing, classical, directed and oriented (14 Sept), Miquel's lemma and circle problems (28 Sept), divisors, gcd and coprimality (12 Oct), gcd identities and exponential Diophantine problems (26 Oct).

2

November to December 2025

Cycle 2 · Combinatorial Games & Invariants

Coach: Ilja Uzelac Bujišić. The first session covered invariants, monovariants, parity, and coloring on 28 November 2025. The second explored combinatorial games and Nim on 12 December. A final session on 26 December connected Nim variations with cellular automata, Conway's Game of Life, simulation, and mathematical research. Teachers closed the cycle on 16 January 2026 with presentations about the Towers of Hanoi, Nim, a Japanese puzzle, and game theory.

3

February to March 2026

Cycle 3 · Cauchy Bunyakovsky Schwarz Inequality

Coach: Prof. Zdravko Cvetkovski (Macedonia). Three live sessions developed the Cauchy Bunyakovsky Schwarz inequality through its variations, Engel and Titu forms, reverse techniques, and olympiad applications. The sessions took place on 6 February, 13 February, and 27 March 2026. Teachers closed the cycle on 10 April with presentations about the Cauchy Schwarz inequality.

4

April to May 2026

Cycle 4 · Advanced Number Theory

Coach: Dr. Dušan Djukić (University of Belgrade · Mathematical Institute SANU). Three live sessions: Fermat's Little Theorem, Euler's Theorem, multiplicative orders and exponential Diophantine equations (24 April 2026); the Lifting the Exponent lemma and p adic valuation (9 May 2026); and primitive roots and residues (24 May 2026). The cycle closed on 14 June 2026 with a participant teacher presentation in which cohort members presented worked solutions to selected Cycle 4 problems.

Summer Workshop · June 2025

The inaugural onsite workshop at NYU Abu Dhabi.

From 16 to 20 June 2025, the Academy's first year closed with a weeklong onsite workshop at the A6 Building on the NYU Abu Dhabi campus. Coaches Đorđe Baralić and Ilja Uzelac Bujišić led daily lectures and problem sessions across geometry, combinatorics, number theory and analysis, Brocard and Brianchon, counting and bijection, Ceva and Menelaus, recursion and the floor function, Pell's equation, polyominoes, and infinite descent.

Participants and faculty of the Year One onsite summer workshop, gathered on the steps of the NYU Abu Dhabi A6 Building, June 2025
Cohort photo · NYUAD, June 2025
Workshop session in the A6 Building classroom at NYU Abu Dhabi
A6 Building classroom
Programme flyer of the June 16 to 20, 2025 Math Olympiad Trainer Academy summer workshop at NYU Abu Dhabi, listing speakers Đorđe Baralić and Ilja Uzelac Bujišić
Programme · 16 to 20 June 2025

Special engagements

Beyond the Academy: when the Ministry called.

The network behind the Academy also supports selected special engagements. These projects extend its mathematical expertise into a distinct program with its own remit.

Summer 2025 · single

UAE IMO 2025 Training Camp

A residential and hybrid training camp lasting nineteen days, run by the Academy's team in collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Education, in preparation for the International Mathematical Olympiad. It served seventeen of the country's strongest secondary school mathematicians, including the six members of the UAE's IMO team.

21 June to 9 July 2025 · NYU Abu Dhabi · in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Education

Read the full record →

Participant presentations

Teachers teaching teachers.

Each cycle closes with participant led sessions: teachers present a topic from the cycle to the cohort, reasoning through proofs aloud, taking questions, and bringing the year's mathematics back into a teaching voice. Four sessions to date.

Cycle 1 teacher presentation · 9 November 2025

Euclidean Geometry

Coach session, closing presentations

  • Adnan Ahmed Saif HasanMiquel's theorem
  • Mohamed Hedi GhomrianiPower of a point
  • Mohamed El IbbaouiGeometric reasoning
  • Tareq Ali AlthuwamiCyclic quadrilaterals (delivered in Arabic)

Cycle 2 teacher presentation · 16 January 2026

Mathematical Games & Strategy

Coach session, closing presentations

  • Mekael AlhammoudTowers of Hanoi
  • Adnan Ahmed Saif HasanGame of Piles · Nim
  • Mohamed El IbbaouiA Japanese puzzle
  • Tareq Ali AlthawamiIntroduction to game theory

Cycle 3 teacher presentation · 10 April 2026

The Cauchy Schwarz Inequality

With Prof. Zdravko Cvetkovski

  • Mohammed A. DawoodProof and motivation
  • Adnan Al-Sharabi & Tariq AlthawamiOlympiad applications
  • Ramadana Al-Tuwati · LibyaEngel form and consequences
  • Mekael HammoudSharp cases and extensions

Cycle 4 teacher presentation · 14 June 2026 · 7:00 p.m. UAE time

Advanced Number Theory

With Dr. Dušan Djukić

Cohort members presented worked solutions to selected Cycle 4 exercises, drawing on Fermat's and Euler's theorems, multiplicative orders, the Lifting the Exponent lemma, and primitive roots.

Anatomy of a session

What a live session looks like.

Every cycle is built around live online sessions. The most recent one, Cycle 4 · Session 1, 24 April 2026, is a useful example.

Cycle 4 · Session 1, Advanced Number Theory

Topic: Exponential congruences, Fermat's Little Theorem, Euler's Theorem and multiplicative orders.

Live date: 24 April 2026 · NYU Abu Dhabi Zoom platform.

Cycle coach & live mathematical exposition: Dr. Dušan Djukić, University of Belgrade and Serbian Mathematical Society.

Pedagogical development, mathematical expansion and LaTeX preparation: Dr. Dania Zantout, Academic Program Architect & Director.

This session opens the advanced number theory strand. Participants develop the following skills:

  1. State and prove Fermat's Little Theorem using the residue permutation method.
  2. State Euler's Theorem and compute Euler's totient function from a prime factorization.
  3. Use small moduli, 4, 7 and 9, to force parity, divisibility and contradictions in exponential Diophantine equations.
  4. Define multiplicative order and explain why ord_n(a) divides φ(n) when gcd(a, n) = 1.
  5. Translate divisibility conditions such as 2a−1 | 2b−1 into conditions on exponents.
  6. Apply the smallest prime divisor method in problems involving n | 2n ± 1.
  7. Recognise how a short congruence argument can prepare the ground for the lifting the exponent lemma.
The mathematical arc is Fermat → Euler → cycles of powers → multiplicative order → olympiad applications. The pedagogical arc is to begin with familiar small cycles and then reveal that those cycles are governed by a general structure.
NYU Abu Dhabi campus at golden hour

Ready to join the next cycle?

Applications open between cycles. Submit your interest and we will be in touch when the next round opens.

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