TLF Camp 2026: The First Week in Paphos

The academic programme was one of the main parts of the camp. Each study day was divided into two parts: in the first half of the day, all participants studied Mathematics, while in the afternoon they could choose one of several areas depending on their interests and level of preparation: Robotics, ML Junior, ML Advanced or independent problem-solving.

Mathematics

The Mathematics track focused on fundamental mathematical structures, discrete mathematics, group theory and geometry. Special attention was given to popular science topics in topology and knot theory.

For example, the teachers introduced the students to Legendrian knots — a special class of knots subject to strict mathematical constraints. The students explored their properties and invariants — characteristics that can be used to distinguish knots even when they may look identical at first glance.

Here, complex abstract problems could literally be “touched”: using ordinary rubber bands, the students modelled and compared different knotted structures.

Robotics

In the Robotics track, students used Python as their main tool for programming robots and also became familiar with Linux, SSH, Docker, ROS2 and GitHub.

The main focus was on practical work, where participants had to deal with different challenges: in the real world, code has to account for imperfect motors, inaccurate sensors and wheels deviating from the intended trajectory.

At the end of the track, students developed projects on the Duckietown platform, designed around real-world challenges relevant to Cyprus:

• Autonomous taxi — keeps to its lane, stops at intersections and recognises road signs.
• Garbage collector — detects green objects and moves towards them to help clean up an area.
• Cave exploration robot — autonomously explores “caves”, follows a line and can turn around when it reaches a dead end.

Machine Learning

The ML track was divided into two levels according to the participants’ experience.

ML Junior: The Mathematical Foundation of Data Science

Participants built an algorithmic and mathematical foundation for working with data through problems in discrete mathematics.

Instead of mechanically memorising models, they learned to identify hidden patterns and connections in data, using, among other things, the pigeonhole principle and ideas of discrete continuity.

ML Advanced: A Real-World Business Case

As part of the advanced track, students worked on a problem inspired by a real-world business case. They developed a programme that extracts data from a large dataset of restaurants, analyses the characteristics of each establishment and generates a detailed report containing information needed for a comprehensive assessment of the market and business decision-making.

During the project, participants learned new tools and approaches, including asynchronous programming, the Playwright library, the OpenRouter API and other modern technologies.

Exploring the University Environment

Alongside classes, experiments and project work, the camp also gave students an opportunity to meet professionals from science and the IT industry.

Georgios Charalambous, a Mathematics lecturer at AUB Mediterraneo and a graduate of the University of Cambridge, spoke to the scholars about Mathematics, olympiads, academic life and his experience studying at Cambridge.

Another important part of the programme was ICPC Networking — a meeting with participants of a student camp preparing for the ICPC programming competition. The group included students and graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, the University of Maryland, MIT, Constructor University and NUP. They discussed university admissions, academic programmes and student life.

For the TLF scholars, this was an opportunity to ask questions and hear from students and graduates who had recently gone through the process of choosing a university.

Visit to JetBrains

One of the highlights of the camp was a visit to JetBrains in Paphos. The scholars attended the finals of chess and tennis tournaments, with the winners receiving commemorative prizes.

The students also attended a lecture by Alexander Kulikov, a researcher at JetBrains Research and Head of the Algorithms and Complexity Theory Laboratory.

Alexander spoke about current problems in computational complexity theory, including the k-SUM / Subset Sum family of problems, the latest research results from 2026 and problems that are still waiting to be solved.

The lecture presentation is available via the link.

Meeting the TLF Teachers

The scholars also met the TLF teachers based in Cyprus. They learned more about their teachers’ academic and professional backgrounds, interests and activities outside work.

The students then had the opportunity to introduce themselves: to talk about their academic and scientific interests, what they enjoy outside school and what they expect from the new academic year at TLF.

The meeting was another step towards the start of the academic year. After TLF Camp, the scholars moved from Paphos to the boarding house in Limassol, where they began the new academic year as part of the TLF programme.

More information about the TLF teaching team is available on our website.

Exploring Cyprus

But TLF Camp was not only about classes. After the lectures, the students explored Cyprus: during the first week, they visited the Archaeological Park and the Tombs of the Kings, spent a day at a water park and went swimming in the sea.