Mate.Net 2000, an Internet mathematics contest, is having a great reception among students and teachers. At the moment, more than 100 students from almost all the provinces are enrolled, and the faculty has praised this initiative because it encourages the study of a traditionally arid subject and develops specific skills of the students.

Every day, more than 1,200 people access the contest information page and 58,000 view the Mate.Net 2000 banner on the group Mail web pages. instructions and information about the contest are available on the Internet, where interested students can also register.

Although the contest is for students under 20 years of age, with Spanish nationality and programs of study in Spain, students and schools from Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia will participate in Mate.Net 2000, although they will not have the opportunity to win the prizes.

goal.Net 2000 is organized by the technical school of Engineers of the University of Navarra -at the San Sebastian campus , in partnership with Caja Laboral and the group Correo, in the year declared by UNESCO as World Mathematics Year.

This contest, aimed at students of COU and 2nd high school diploma LOGSE, will consist of two phases. The preliminary phase, in which a problem will be proposed through the Internet every Monday at seven o'clock in the morning for six weeks. The answer must be given before 9 p.m. on the same Monday. All students who wish to register can do so from February 28, although there is also the possibility of re-enrolling once the contest begins. The first problem will be published on the network next Monday, March 6, 2000.

The first five winners of the preliminary phase will be able to move on to a written final phase that will take place at the technical school of Engineers on May 6. The winner of each week will receive an electronic encyclopedia with atlas as an award .

The winner of the final phase of the Mate.Net 2000 contest will be awarded a multimedia computer complete with printer, scanner, webcam, etc. The second and third place winners will be awarded a Palm Pilot V pocket computer, and the fourth and fifth place winners will receive a digital camera. In addition, a laptop computer will be raffled among the participants' schools and another laptop computer will be awarded to the high school to which the winner belongs.