The 69th School of Visual Mathematics is behind us
On the 20th-24th of August 2026, The 69th School of Visual Mathematics, – a conference devoted to the promotion of mathematical culture, the exchange of ideas and the popularization of mathematics took place. The host of this year's edition was once again the Silesian University of Technology. 101 participants took part in the conference.
Some of the events took place in the Library of the Silesian University of Technology, and the main points of the program were carried out in the Education and Congress Centre. As part of the 69th School, 20 lectures were given including two open lectures.
Thursday evening, before the official start on Friday, was devoted to "Introduction to mathematical puzzles at a higher level of abstraction" prepared by Bartłomiej Bzdęga. The most puzzles were solved by Bartłomiej Pawlik, Mateusz Dębowski and Andrzej Komisarski. This year's edition of the School of Visual Mathematics also included the exhibition "Mathematics Through the Lens" – an international photography competition combining mathematics with the art of photography.
On Friday, the ceremonial opening of the event was attended by, among others, Vice-Rector for Infrastructure, and Investment Prof. Dr Hab. Eng. Zbigniew Paszenda and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics Dr Eng. Mariusz Pleszczyński. The official opening of the School traditionally began with the presentation of the Filc Medal, an award for the best lecture delivered during the previous edition, and the lecture by the laureate, Professor Zbigniew Marciniak, "Completely different and yet the same: four examples."
Individual days of the conference were led by Szymon Charzyński, Marek Kordos, Martyna Strach, and Witold Tomaszewski. The Programme Council was composed of: Michał Skrzypczak, Paulina Baczyńska, Łukasz Błaszczyk, Adam Bobrowski, Krzysztof Ciesielski, Szymon Charzyński, Maria Donten-Bury, Zuzanna Grabarz, Jarosław Grytczuk, Andrzej Komisarski, Grzegorz Kosiorowski, Małgorzata Mikołajczyk, Małgorzata Misztal, Bartosz Naskręcki, Bartłomiej Pawlik, Zdzisław Pogoda, Agnieszka Prusińska, Barbara Roszkowska-Lech, Mariusz Skałba and Marta Więcławska.
In the competition for the Best Lecture, first place was taken by Łukasz Rajkowski for his lecture "55 faces of Dobbli". The next places went to Andrzej Grzesik – "Everything you wanted to know about large graphs but were afraid to ask", Joanna Jaszuńska – "About reflections in a strange mirror - the same or not the same", Andrzej Dąbrowski – "At the beginning: shells, and at the end: algebra" and Paulina Rowińska – "Maps: a mathematical instruction manual".
The next School will begin with the ceremonial presentation of the Felt Medal to Łukasz Rajkowski and a lecture by the laureate.
Traditionally, a Poster Session was held during the event in the form of an exhibition. The main prize was awarded to Martyna Pieczka for her work "Five-fold symmetry – from mosaics to quasicrystals". Honourable mentions were awarded to Adam Drażyk for the poster “Statistics on the Trail of Dirty Money” and to Filip Nawrocki and Kacper Chmura for the poster “How to Solve a Multidimensional Sudoku? Or about the connection between Sudoku and graph theory.”
In the Exemplary Listener competition, organized by Małgorzata Misztal and Rafał Bieliński, the gold medal was won by Bruno Pitrus. The silver and bronze medals were won by Nicole Meisner and Łukasz Rajkowski, respectively.
On Friday evening, the "Puzzles" competition, hosted by Renata Jurasińska, took place, ending with the victory of Rafał Bieliński.
On Saturday evening, the Library of the Silesian University of Technology hosted a presentation of the books "121 Deltoids" by Joanna Jaszuńska and "Unjustly Forgotten Geometry" by Jerzy Bednarczuk.
As part of Sunday's "Lecture into Infinity", Michał Skrzypczak gave a lecture on "Does the timeline have to have a twist?", which was accompanied by an original game. The best result in it was achieved by Adam Drażyk.
Patronage and support
The 69th edition of the School of Visual Mathematics was held under the patronage of the Rector of the Silesian University of Technology, the Director of the Library of the Silesian University of Technology, the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of the Silesian University of Technology, the Mayor of Gliwice Katarzyna Kuczyńska-Budka, the President of the Polish Mathematical Society, the Rector of the Warsaw University of Technology, the Rector of the University of Warsaw, the Director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Editor-in-Chief of the "Delta" journal.
This year's edition was supported by Pegasystems Software Limited, the Library of the Silesian University of Technology, the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of the Silesian University of Technology, the Aksjomat Publishing House from Toruń and the "Delta" magazine.
The 70th School of Visual Mathematics is planned for the turn of summer and autumn 2027. It will be held in Gliwice again.
Text by Zuzanna Grabarz
Photos Adam Drażyk, Lukasz Błaszczyk
