The International Mathematical Olympiad was first held in Romania in 1959. Credit: Deposit Photos Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. In 1959, countries around the world sent their most talented students to Romania to compete in the first-ever International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). Ever since, the rules have remained simple, even if the problems are not: over two days, each team works to solve a total of six math problems . After nearly 70 years, contenders from the United States, China, and Luxembourg have achieved a perfect score in various years. But while each year’s competition focuses on only six problems, there has long been another side to the IMO. “Every country brings a booklet of its most novel and most creative problems,” explained Shaden Alshammari , a mathematician at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).…