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A special award for the most "genuine" work, High-Heeled Shoe, was presented to Szabina Csuzmadea from Hungary.
Szabina's High-Heeled Shoe—special award winner:
Press coverage
The thirty top students from the three regions gathered in Novi Sad for the closing ceremonies. They have shown that they are above average and can achieve even more than that, as was emphasized in speeches by dignitaries of the Provincial Government. The Festival of Mind aims to discover talented high school students who have above-average ability for visual perception and logical thinking. This Second Festival was held under the sponsorship of the Provincial Secretariat of Education in cooperation with Mensa of Serbia.
The Festival received plenty of coverage in the press. Here's an article on the Government of Vojvodina official website, with translation below:
Translation:
Novi Sad/Timisoara, 11 May 2012 — In the framework of international cooperation between Vojvodina (Serbia) and Timis County (Romania), the high school event called "Festival of Mind 2" was held in Timisoara on Friday, May 10. The second competition of the students in solving the logic puzzle Doris in Romania was officially opened in the presence of the General Consul of the Republic of Serbia in Timisoara, Mr. Lazar Manojlovic; the Inspector General of Education for Timis County, Dr Marin Popescu; Kabok Jozsef, Assistant Secretary for Education, Administration and National Minorities; Mr. Zdravko Zivkovic, author of the Doris puzzle; and principals of all seven participating schools from Timisoara.
The competition was held in the Technical School of Timisoara (Colegiul Tehnic Dimitrie Leonida). About 50 selected students from seven schools from the City of Timisoara showed remarkable skills in logical thinking and creativity, proving that the universal language of colors is equally understandable and interesting for everybody. After two hours of brainstorming, the result was truly an explosion of creativity, which could be the envy of the professionals involved in designing new products or coming up with creative solutions to promote innovation. Works of students from Romania will compete for participation in the finals of "Festival of Mind 2" to be held in June in Novi Sad, together with other participants from high schools in Vojvodina and Hungary. Selection of the winning works will be made by an international jury of 10 members.
The following article appeared in Blic, Serbia's largest-circulation newspaper:
Summary of article:
Scorpion – For the finals of Festival of Mind, 30 talented high school students qualified from the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Republic of Serbia), Romanian County Timis, and Hungarian County Csongrad. The theme was "Show how creative you are, how bold and dexterous." The task for the contestants was to use parts of the octagonal Doris puzzle and show unusual ideas. According to the author of the festival, Zdravko Zivkovic, this event serves to release creativity and build confidence in the young population. "Solving thus far unsolved problems and creating figures not seen before are the goals achieved in these kinds of competitions," he said.
"I am very satisfied with the creativity shown during the Festival, especially in the finals," said Zivkovic.
Festival of Mind director and Doris creator, Zdravko Zivkovic (on left), presents Prime Minister Boyan Paytic of Vojvodina (Serbia) with the first copy of Doris and its certificate as No. 1 of the Serbian edition, at a special ceremony.
Zdravko Zivkovic presents first copy of Doris to prime minister
The Provincial Secretariat for Education, in cooperation with Mensa, had organized the first Festival for high schools in the Province of Vojvodina. Soon after, two other regions from neighboring countries joined in, because Vojvodina has successful cross-border cooperation with many regions in European countries.
The result: a true explosion of creativity, great attention from schools and media, and invitation from many regions to visit them and allow their students to participate in the tournaments. The success of their students is a great prestige for each school.
All kinds of high schools are eligible to participate, not only technical or mathematical schools. No months-long advance preparation is needed; simple rules are explained just 5 minutes before the tournament starts. There are no language barriers—one simple example is enough to explain everything. The task is simple: let's play and have some fun, create whatever you can imagine. There are no wrong solutions, just good, better and best. It's a highly effective formula. The popularity of the competitions keeps growing.
Scenes from the competitions
The top 7 winning designs:
First row: Dejan Knezevic's Scorpion and Snail.
Second row: Katarina Zdraveski's Mouse and Sparrow.
Third row: Vanja Velickovic's Duck and Baby Carriage; Szabina Csuzmadea's High-Heeled Shoe.
Selected designs from the semi-finals:
The creativity of the participants was astounding and inspiring. Our congratulations to all, and to the dedicated organizers who are bringing such mind-stretching challenges to students in three countries. Kadon is proud to support these championships and to make beautiful sets of Doris for the whole world.
Of course, you can order your own beautiful Doris set from us anytime, in your preferred colors. Just click any of the links below.
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First prize went to Dejan Knezevic, 18, a student at the Technical School in Kikinda, for his design, Scorpion. "I love the Doris puzzle, and I have long thought about what I could make to enter, to be original and creative. I realized that the figure of a scorpion is very complicated and I would be able to make it, which I did in less than 10 minutes," said Dejan. He said that he did not expect victory. "I wished only to place in the finals, so for me this is a big surprise. I admit that’s a fine feeling, and at this moment I feel really smart," Knezevic said.
