DG: I got accepted into the Non-Trivial Fellowship, which is an eight-week program all about making a big impact. You learn how to be as effective and impactful as possible with your career and projects, pitch an idea for a project, and develop it.
If it’s a really good idea then they give you the funding to take it to the next step. It’s a way for me to maybe make a difference as a teenager right now, and already I’m getting to be a part of this really friendly community with so many intelligent people.
DG: I'm beyond excited to study there! It’s about everything, really–Bristol Uni is amazing, the city’s atmosphere, and the course is a really interesting blend that’s a great fit for me. I’ve heard so many good things from a lot of people like my teachers and parents’ coworkers, not just online. Like wow, they’ve got that crazy new supercomputer. I'm also a bit intimidated, it's just those kinds of nerves that come with going abroad and setting off on your own.
DG: I think I decided after I volunteered for a wildlife conservation NGO on a mission to the Great Gobi [desert]. During the mission, I saw how nomadic herders, who move their yurts two or three times a year, lived. They have some pretty harsh living conditions, with temperatures getting as low as -40° C, relying on burning animal dung for warmth, which isn't sufficient during the night.
I thought, why not create a portable heating system? I considered various options: a hydroponic system using heated water or an electrical heating system. The hydroponic system, while feasible, has limited energy availability when cut off from central infrastructure.
Herders do use solar panels for basic needs, but it's not enough to keep large volumes of water heated. An electrical system, although posing some fire risk, might be more effective. My idea was to interweave flexible heating pipes within the walls of the yurts, potentially providing both heating and hot water. And I just remember sketching all these ideas and thinking, “This is really fun. I wanna make this real.”
I thought engineering would be fulfilling because it felt like I could make an actual difference in my community and help people's lives. I’m into making up ideas and trying to make them as practical as possible. So, that definitely pushed me towards something more hands-on and applied, like mechanical engineering.
DG: I'm aiming for sustainability and green tech, as well as improving domestic welfare, basically the areas related to the heating system sketches I worked on. Renewable energy is definitely an interest for me, which is why I chose mechanical and electrical engineering as my firm choice.
In my course specifically, they're gonna explore micro-grids, which is in line with providing renewable energy to houses unconnected to the main grid. I first took interest in these areas because herders could use that for portable electricity, but I’m excited to learn about them and their uses in general!
DG: Well, I spent four years in America while my mom did her doctorate, and when we came back my 4th grade math teacher took me up and said “Hey, you're pretty ok at math. We can start training.” It was pretty light at first, I went in, and I was moderately successful. So I kept doing it. The moment when I first realized I had potential in Olympiads was when I got fourth place in a smaller Olympiad in my city, one place after bronze. My teacher, he’s pretty determined, encouraged me to keep training. He was a good trainer, and helped me get into the selective class in one of the math schools in our city. I met my main trainer there.
DG: I think it was in 10th grade. Before, it was mostly going with the flow and I didn’t really grind so intensely. Of course I liked training, but it wasn't a 10-hours-a-day kind of thing. But during the winter of 10th grade, I participated in the International Zhautykov Olympiad and got bronze.
My school told me I had some potential, so they gave me leave for about a month because they wanted me to try to train as hard as possible for nationals in spring. So I did that, just grinding from morning to evening.
Doing problems intensely was satisfying and when you have a lot of time to just sink into math, it's just really fulfilling. You're finishing books faster, you feel like you’re going somewhere. You learn and actually use all these really interesting techniques.
It also did get very tiring and honestly I had some burnout afterwards. It was worth it though, because I got gold from junior nationals that spring. That kind of pay-off, on top of the general sense of fulfillment doing math a lot, made me really get into training.
DG: I do some digital art. I don’t have much time for it, but I'm proud of some of my pieces and it's really rewarding. I do some story writing, though I don’t publish. I'm an ideas kind of person, so I like to daydream stories and find it fun to write characters, their relationships, and their drama.
DG: I think my EGMO silver this year, especially because I was not in the best mental space during the competition. I was one point short of bronze in nationals the week prior, had exam stress, especially since it was my graduating year, and was also dealing with morning headaches. I’m proud of myself for pulling through and still landing something good in the process.
