Students of Sharif University of Technology are ranked first among West Asian countries at the 14th International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

The international competition was held from September 15 to 20 in Astana, Kazakhstan, ISNA reported.

The event was attended by 73,000 students from more than 100 countries representing leading universities in each country.

The Iranian team was composed of Ali Safari, Alireza Keshavarz, and Amir-Mohammad Shahrezaei.

Sharif University of Technology ranked 13 globally, sharing the position with Harvard University, St. Petersburg State University, University of Oxford, and University of Science and Technology of China, as well as other famous institutions receiving the highest honors.

The ICPC is a prestigious international student programming Olympiad. It was founded in the 1970s in the USA and has since become a global competition that gathers the best teams of students from universities around the world to solve complex algorithmic problems.

At the international level, ICPC was first held in 1977 in the USA, University of Michigan. Since then, the competition has been held annually in various countries such as the USA, Russia, the Netherlands, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Sweden, Poland, Thailand, Morocco, Egypt, Bangladesh and Portugal.

This year, for the first time, the competition was held in Kazakhstan in Astana.

The ICPC community’s purpose is to advance prospects for the next generation by bringing students together working collaboratively to solve algorithmically challenging problems, and preparing them to build dependable systems that benefit their neighbors with the support of universities, industry, and community leaders, globally.

Volunteer coaches prepare their teams with intense training and instruction in algorithms, programming, and teamwork strategy.

Huddled around a single computer, the teams of three students compete against each other to solve eight or more complex, real-world problems within a five-hour deadline.

Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and build software systems that solve the problems. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the winner.

Recent achievements

A total of 18 students from Iran attended the 47th WorldSkills Competition, winning 9 medals including a silver medal and medallions for excellence.

The competition was held from September 10 to 15 in Lyon, France. Some 1,500 competitors from more than 65 countries and regions around the world gathered in Lyon to compete in different skills.

Iran grabbed a gold medal, two silver medals, and a bronze medal at the 36th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), ranking 9th among 96 countries.

Hosted in Alexandria, Egypt, the event started on September 1 and concluded on September 8, IRNA reported.

Each participating country selected a team of up to four contestants to represent their nation.

The team competed in a two-day competition. Each contestant competed individually to maximize their score by solving three algorithmic problems within five hours.

Iranian students attended the event online and ranked ninth globally. Amir-Ali Asgari grabbed the gold medal, Amir-Hossein Farkhondeh-Far and Amir-Reza Dorosti won the silver medals, while Parsa Farajpour-Sarabi received the bronze medal.

In a remarkable achievement, Iranian students won five gold medals, ranking first in the 17th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) which was held from August 17 to 27 in Vassouras, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The five-member team comprised Hannaneh Khorramdashti, Mohammad-Mehdi Keshavarzi, Arya Fateh-Kerdari, and Ali Naderi-Lordjan, Mehr news agency reported.

This year, over 250 students from 57 countries participated in the event.

Five Iranian students who attended the 54th International Physics Olympiad managed to win a gold medal and four silver medals, improving the country’s ranking from 17th in 2023 to fourth this year.

The 54th edition of the IPhO commenced on July 22 in the city of Isfahan and concluded on July 28.

A total of 200 elite students from 47 countries including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Mexico, Turkey, and some other countries participated in the nine-day event, IRNA reported.

A team of Iranian students won five gold medals in different fields of research in the 9th edition of the ‘1Idea 1World’ International Innovation, Design & Startup Competition.

The event, which is considered one of the biggest international idea and technology competitions in the world, was held in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, on April 28-29.

Participants from 24 countries including Iran, Canada, China, Taiwan, The United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates participated in the competition both in person and online to showcase their innovative projects in 10 different subgroups such as medicine and agriculture, IRNA reported.

From among 273 different innovative ideas, the top five ideas received special awards, with two of the awards going to Iranian participants.

In the Taiwan International Science Fair (TISF) 2024, which was held from January 28 to February 2, the Iranian team ranked fourth among 28 countries.

Mehrad Faridi and Ilya Haji from Iran competed with 41 teams during the five-day event which was hosted by the capital city of Taipei, IRIB reported.

Iran ranked fourth next to Taiwan, the United States, and Russia.

Attending the 40th Annual Science Olympiad Tournament at Michigan State University, Iranian students managed to win a bronze medal and two diplomas of honor.

A total of 114 teams from 84 countries presenting 310 scientific projects participated in the competition, Mehr news agency reported.

The competition is held annually for students aged 12 – 18 from June 1 to 15.

Supported by Oxford University, the competition was held in two stages in the fields of technical engineering, computer science, energy, biological science, social science, art, and robotics. /T.T/

Stanford University, using Scopus data provided by Elsevier, has listed 2,503 Iranian researchers among the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists in the world, a significant growth compared to 1,870 researchers in 2023.

The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2 percent or above in the sub-field. This version (7) is based on the August 1, 2024, snapshot from Scopus, updated to the end of the citation year 2023.

The inclusion in the ‘Top 2%’ list is determined by several key metrics. C-score which is the composite score based on various bibliometric factors, including the total number of citations, h-index, and the number of citations with and without self-citations.

Field and Sub-field Percentiles: scientists are classified into 22 broad fields and 176 sub-fields. Only those who rank in the top 2% of their sub-field are included.

Career-Long vs. Single-Year Impact: the ranking is available for both career-long impact and single-year performance, offering insights into both long-term contributions and recent achievements.

Iran ranks 32nd in 2024 Research Leaders worldwide

The 2024 edition of the Nature Index Research Leaders report placed Iran 32nd among Research Leaders globally. The report is based on Nature Index data from January 1 to December 31, 2023.

Institute for Fundamental Sciences (IPM), University of Tehran, and Sharif University of Technology were ranked first to third in the country.

The country was ranked second in Physical Sciences, third in Chemistry, as well as Health Sciences, fourth in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and fifth in Biological Sciences in the region.

Iran’s best global ranking was in Physical Sciences with the rank of 27.

The Nature Index is an open database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The Index tracks contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural science and health science journals, chosen based on reputation by an independent group of researchers.

The Nature Index provides absolute Count and fractional share counts of article publications at the institutional and national levels and, as such, is an indicator of global high-quality research output and collaboration.

Data in the Nature Index are updated regularly, with the most recent 12 months. The database is compiled by Nature Research Intelligence, part of Springer Nature.

Iran ranks 14th for most-cited institutes

The number of top Iranian universities and research institutes in the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database has increased from 115 last year to 134 this year, ranking the country 14th worldwide, and second among Islamic countries, the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) has reported.

Essential Science Indicators, or ESI, is a fundamental analysis and evaluation tool that reveals emerging science trends, as well as the performance of influential individuals, academic institutions, papers, journals, countries, and regions in various fields of scientific research.

A total of 9,019 universities and research institutes in all subject areas are ranked by the ESI database in a ten-year period, from 2014 to 2024.

Iran’s top universities and research institutes are present in 19 subject areas, and the largest number is in the clinical medicine subject area with 74 universities and research institutes.

The number of institutions in the subject areas of engineering was 67, chemistry 57, agricultural sciences 29, materials sciences 28, pharmacology and toxicology 27, social sciences, general sciences 21.

Also, the number of institutions in the fields of plant and animal sciences, and environment/ecology 20 each, neuroscience and behavior 18, biology and biochemistry 17, computer science 15, immunology 10, geology 8, molecular biology and genetics and physics 5 each, microbiology and psychiatry and psychology 3 each and mathematics one.

The ranking includes 35 Islamic countries. Turkey ranks first among Islamic nations, followed by Iran in second place.

Also, Turkey with 149 universities and research institutes ranks 12th in the world.

Egypt (with 48 universities and research institutes) ranks 25th, Pakistan (with 46 universities) ranks 27th, and Saudi Arabia (with 45 universities) ranks 38th, respectively.  /T.T/

The head of the Iranian Space Agency Hassan Salarieh announced that at least 5 satellites would be launched into space by the end of the current Iranian year of 1403 (ending on March 20).

In an interview with Mehr News Agency on Monday, Salarieh said that 5-7 satellites would be launched into space by the yearend.

He added that the Iranian Space Agency is planning sub-orbital launches in 1403 with the cooperation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force.

“This year we would have 2 foreign launches,” he said, adding that the Tolo-3 and Zafar-2 satellites will be launched with foreign launchers in upcoming months.

The homegrown Kosar satellite would also be launched this year, Salarieh added, underlining that this satellite was built by the private sector. / MNA/

Iran’s export of various services including tourism, transit, and technical engineering reached about $12 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year 1402 (ended on March 19), registering a 20 percent rise compared to a year earlier, an official with the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced.

Mohammad-Sadegh Ghanadzadeh, the TPO’s deputy head for international business promotion, put the country’s exports of services in the year 1401 at $10 billion, IRIB reported.

According to the official, the Islamic Republic exported about $2.5 billion of technical engineering services to other countries in the previous year, noting that in case of removing the obstacles the export of such services could increase up to $6.0 billion.

“One of the most important obstacles to the export of technical engineering services is the issuance of guarantees for the participation of companies in tenders in the target countries. Last year, a proposed package was prepared by the Trade Promotion Organization with the help of the Union of Technical and Engineering Services Exporters and proposed to the government, which we expect to solve many of such problems when implemented,” Ghanadzadeh said.

Last month, Mohammadreza Karimzadeh, the director-general of TPO’s Knowledge-Based Products and Technical and Engineering Services Office, said Iran’s export of technical engineering services exceeded $200 million in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21) from the same period of time in the previous year.

According to Karimzadeh, the exports of the mentioned services increased by 18 percent compared to the previous year’s same period.

The implemented projects in other countries were in various fields including oil and gas, energy transmission lines, information and communication technology as well as water and sewage projects, he noted.

Back in April, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iran Water Industry Federation said the country exported $1.8 billion worth of technical and engineering services over the past two years.

Stressing the importance of exporting technical and engineering services, Reza Haj Karim said giant steps have been taken in the administration of late President Ebrahim Raisi in the field as compared to the previous years.

Domestic knowledge-based companies have a high potential to export technical and engineering services and can do even better with due support from the government, he underscored.

Haj Karim further noted that Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and East Asian countries are among those whose economic growth is higher than the world average so this Asian market can be a lucrative market for Iranian domestic companies.

As a leading country in the water and electricity industry, Iran stands in the first rank in the region in the export of technical and engineering services in this industry, and this shows the high technical and engineering knowledge and ability of Iranian specialists and companies.

Thanks to the efforts of the country’s specialists in the years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran is now among the top five power plant turbine manufacturing countries in the world. /T.T/

A team of archaeologists has discovered a series of 1,700-year-old paintings in the ancient city of Gur, located three kilometers from Firuzabad, Fars province, southern Iran.

These remarkable findings, dating back to the early 3rd century CE, provide new insight into the artistic and cultural life during the Sassanian Empire.

The discovery was announced on Monday by Mohammad Sabet-Eqlidi, the tourism chief of Fars province. According to him, the paintings were found during excavation and restoration work on a burial site in the ancient city.

“These paintings were uncovered on the surface of two Sassanian-era coffins during the work to organize and protect a burial site in Gur,” he said.

The artworks were created using mineral pigments on a gypsum base, a technique typical of the period, ILNA reported on Monday.

The paintings depict figures in profile and three-quarter views, rendered with great detail and vivid colors, the report said.

These images offer a rare glimpse into the artistic traditions and social customs of the time, likely representing members of the Sassanian aristocracy or specific rituals.

One of the most prominent finds is a 60 by 90 cm wall painting located in a small chamber on the northwestern side of Gur. The chamber’s walls are plastered with gypsum, and on the eastern wall, the painting was discovered.

When comparing it with similar examples in the Palace of Ardashir (which is a Sassanid element of a UNESCO-registered ensemble in Fars province), experts believe the scene portrays a part of aristocratic life or a ceremonial ritual involving prominent Sassanian figures.

According to the report, the wall painting features two distinct human figures: on the right, the image of a young man, although partially damaged, is obvious. His face is painted in profile, but his body is fully frontal, showcasing the detailed craftsmanship. On the left, adjacent to the man, is the image of a woman, portrayed in a similar style but wearing different-colored clothing. She is depicted holding what appears to be a lamb in her arms.

Both figures are framed within a bright green rectangular panel, and five centimeters to the left, a parallel panel containing two additional human figures was found. These figures share the same artistic execution as the ones on the right, and their portrayal offers clues to the symbolic or cultural significance of the scene.

In addition to the wall paintings, geometric floor patterns were discovered. The floor mosaics are characterized by intricate triangular designs, symmetrically arranged in shades of red, green, and orange.

The paintings and mosaics provide an invaluable window into Sassanian art and culture, as it is suggested that they depict aspects of the lives of the empire’s nobility.

The Sassanid epoch is of very high importance in the history of Iran. Under the Sassanids, Persian art and architecture experienced a general renaissance. Architecture often took grandiose proportions, such as some palaces located in Ctesiphon, Firuzabad, and Sarvestan, which are amongst the highlights of the ensemble.

Crafts such as metalwork and gem engraving grew highly sophisticated, yet scholarship was encouraged by the state. In those years, works from both the East and West were translated into Pahlavi, the language of the Sassanians. The Sassanid archaeological landscape also represents a highly efficient system of land use and strategic utilization of natural topography in the creation of the earliest cultural centers of the Sassanid civilization. /T.T/

The 2024-2025 edition of Best Global Universities rankings has included 69 Iranian universities, up from 52 in 2023, among the world’s 2,250 top universities.

These institutions from 104 countries have been ranked based on 13 indicators that measure their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations which helps students to explore the higher education options that exist beyond their own countries’ borders and to compare key aspects of schools’ research missions.

University of Tehran (with a global ranking of 275), Islamic Azad University (374), Sharif University of Technology and Tehran University of Medical Sciences (516), University of Tabriz (521), and Amirkabir University of Technology (649) ranked first to fifth in the country, respectively.

The rankings assess academic research and reputation, but personal considerations, including location, campus culture, strength of particular programs, and cost, are also very important considerations.

U.S. News first included the top 250 universities in the results of Clarivate’s global reputation survey.

Next, it added any other institutions that met the minimum threshold of at least 1,250 papers published from 2018 to 2022.

This paper threshold is unchanged from the last ranking. Those two criteria created the final 2024-2025 ranking pool of 2,271 institutions from which U.S. News ranked the top-scoring 2,250 universities in the overall ranking.

The second step was to calculate the rankings using the 13 indicators and weights that U.S. News chose to measure global research performance. Each school’s profile page on usnews.com lists its overall global score as well as numerical ranks for the 13 indicators, allowing students to compare each school’s standing in each indicator.

These indicators include Global research reputation (12.5 percent); Regional research reputation (12.5 percent); Publications (10 percent); Books (2.5 percent) conferences (2.5 percent); Normalized citation impacts (10 percent); total citations (7.5 percent); Percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited (12.5 percent); International collaboration – relative to country (5 percent); International collaboration (5 percent); Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1% most cited in their respective field (5 percent); Percentage of total publications that are among the top 1% most highly cited papers (5 percent).

International rankings

Shanghai ranking 2024 placed nine Iranian universities among the top 1,000 institutions worldwide.

The 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) was released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.

Since 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world’s top universities annually based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. It has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy one.

This year, more than 2,500 institutions were scrutinized, and the best 1,000 universities in the world were published.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences and University of Tehran, which were among the top 500 universities in the world with a rank of 401–500, were placed top in the country.

Tarbiat Modares University (601–700) was placed second.

Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti of Medical Sciences, and Sharif University of Technology with a ranking of 701-800, shared the third rank in the country.

Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, and University of Tabriz (901 –1000) were ranked joint fourth.

According to data released by Web of Science (WoS), Iran’s ranking in Quantum Science and Technology publications improved from 23 in 2014 to 16 in 2023, placing the country top among Islamic nations in all quantum technology fields.

Iran’s best global ranking was in quantum remote sensing technology. The country was ranked eighth worldwide.

The country’s other global ranking included photonic network technologies, 17; superconducting circuits, 18; spin qubit, 16; neutral (cold) atoms, 21; Trapped ions, 19; quantum key distribution, 24; quantum repeater, 26; quantum clock, 12; quantum imaging, 14; and quantum radar, 15.

The Times Higher Education (THE) included 33 universities from Iran among the top 1,500 universities pursuing sustainable development goals (SDG) compared to 27 universities in 2023.

THE evaluated 2,152 universities from 125 countries to produce the overall Impact Ranking for 2024.

A total of 29 Iranian universities were mentioned in the overall table including Alzahra University, Iran University of Medical Sciences, and Kerman University of Medical Sciences (ranking 401- 600); Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, and University of Tehran (ranking 601 -800); Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Sharif University of Technology, University of Kurdistan, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (ranking 801-1000), Mehr news agency reported.

Amirkabir University of Technology and Sharif University of Technology achieved the highest ranking in industry innovation and infrastructure, placing 27th.

The 21st edition of the QS World University Rankings (2025) placed nine Iranian universities among the world’s top institutes, compared with seven universities in 2024.

This year’s ranking featured over 1,500 institutions across 105 higher education systems.

Sharif University of Technology (with a rank of 342), University of Tehran (368), Amirkabir University of Technology (403), Iran University of Science and Technology (436), and Isfahan University of Technology (489) were ranked first to fifth, respectively.

Tabriz University (552), Shiraz University (691-700), Shahid Beheshti University (851-900), and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (951- 1000) were other top Iranian universities included in the ranking.

A total of 29 Islamic countries with 270 universities were included in this ranking.

Malaysia, Indonesia, and Turkey ranked first to third respectively in terms of the number of universities. Iran ranked 11th among Islamic nations in this year’s QS ranking.

SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) 2024 placed 197 Iranian universities among the top institutions in the world compared to 194 universities in 2023.

The SIR is a classification of academic and research-related institutions ranked by a composite indicator that combines three different sets of indicators based on research performance, innovation outputs, and societal impact measured by their web visibility.

In the latest ranking, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (5) and the University of Tehran (10) were among the top 10 institutions in West Asia. They ranked 6th and 11th, respectively, in the 2023 ranking.

The Research rankings of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and University of Tehran were 175 and 290, respectively, in the world. /T.T/

Today, despite ongoing sanctions, Iran is producing advanced rockets and launching satellites into space, the country’s embassy in London has stressed.

“Iran has successfully launched its domestically-developed Chamran 1 research satellite into orbit, marking a significant milestone in the country’s space program,” Iran’s embassy in London said in a post on X social media platform, referring to the successful launch of the Chamran-1 satellite into orbit.

“The era when Iran struggled to purchase missiles from others to defend itself during an imposed war has passed,” it added.

“Today, despite ongoing sanctions, Iran is producing advanced rockets and launching satellites into space. It’s time to address Iran with respect, not through the language of sanction,” it concluded.

On Saturday, the Chamran-1 research satellite was launched into space by the Qaem 100 satellite carrier and was successfully placed in a 550 km orbit.

The Chamran-1 satellite weighs about 60 kg and its main mission is to test hardware and software systems to prove orbital maneuver technology in height and phase.

Designed and built by IRGC aerospace experts, the Qaem-100 satellite carrier was able to successfully complete the orbiting operation of Chamran-1 satellite.  /MNA/

A total of 18 students from Iran attended the 47th WorldSkills Competition, winning 9 medals including a silver medal and medallions for excellence.

The competition was held from September 10 to 15 in Lyon, France. Some 1,500 competitors from more than 65 countries and regions around the world gathered in Lyon to compete in different skills.

Hasan Mohammadi and Hamid-Reza Hamidi won the silver medal, IRIB reported.

Also, Alireza Pouchali, Arian Taheri, Armin Taheri, Amir-Mohammad Abouei, Mohammad Hosseini, Amir-Abbas Qasemi, Mehrdad Shirvani, and Reza Gholami received the medallion for excellence in Cloud Computing, Graphic Design Technology, IT Network Systems Administration, Refrigeration and air conditioning, Jewellery, Web Technologies, IT Software Solution for business, and Mobile Applications Development, respectively.

The medallion for excellence is awarded to Competitors who obtain a high level of excellence, with 700 or more points.

The WorldSkills Competition, the world’s largest skills Competition, is held every two years. It is a true opportunity for young professionals from all over the world to participate in an international competition, measure, and showcase their skills.

The competitors must not be older than 22 in the year of the Competition. There are 62 skill competitions, including 59 Official skills and 3 Exhibition skills.

In 2024, six skill competitions debuted at a centralized WorldSkills Competition including Additive Manufacturing, Digital Construction, Industrial Design Technology, Optoelectronic Technology, Renewable Energy, and Robot Systems Integration.

Intl. achievements

Iran grabbed a gold medal, two silver medals, and a bronze medal at the 36th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), ranking 9th among 96 countries.

Hosted in Alexandria, Egypt, the event started on September 1 and concluded on September 8, IRNA reported.

Each participating country selected a team of up to four contestants to represent their nation.

The team competed in a two-day competition. Each contestant competed individually to maximize their score by solving three algorithmic problems within five hours.

Iranian students attended the event online and ranked ninth globally. Amir-Ali Asgari grabbed the gold medal, Amir-Hossein Farkhondeh-Far and Amir-Reza Dorosti won the silver medals, while Parsa Farajpour-Sarabi received the bronze medal.

In a remarkable achievement, Iranian students won five gold medals, ranking first in the 17th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) which was held from August 17 to 27 in Vassouras, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The five-member team comprised Hannaneh Khorramdashti, Mohammad-Mehdi Keshavarzi, Arya Fateh-Kerdari, and Ali Naderi-Lordjan, Mehr news agency reported.

This year, over 250 students from 57 countries participated in the event.

Five Iranian students who attended the 54th International Physics Olympiad managed to win a gold medal and four silver medals, improving the country’s ranking from 17th in 2023 to fourth this year.

The 54th edition of the IPhO commenced on July 22 in the city of Isfahan and concluded on July 28.

A total of 200 elite students from 47 countries including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Mexico, Turkey, and some other countries participated in the nine-day event, IRNA reported.

A team of Iranian students won five gold medals in different fields of research in the 9th edition of the ‘1Idea 1World’ International Innovation, Design & Startup Competition.

The event, which is considered one of the biggest international idea and technology competitions in the world, was held in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, on April 28-29.

Participants from 24 countries including Iran, Canada, China, Taiwan, The United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates participated in the competition both in person and online to showcase their innovative projects in 10 different subgroups such as medicine and agriculture, IRNA reported.

From among 273 different innovative ideas, the top five ideas received special awards, with two of the awards going to Iranian participants.

In the Taiwan International Science Fair (TISF) 2024, which was held from January 28 to February 2, the Iranian team ranked fourth among 28 countries.

Mehrad Faridi and Ilya Haji from Iran competed with 41 teams during the five-day event which was hosted by the capital city of Taipei, IRIB reported.

Iran ranked fourth next to Taiwan, the United States, and Russia.

Attending the 40th Annual Science Olympiad Tournament at Michigan State University, Iranian students managed to win a bronze medal and two diplomas of honor.

A total of 114 teams from 84 countries presenting 310 scientific projects participated in the competition, Mehr news agency reported.

The competition is held annually for students aged 12 – 18 from June 1 to 15.

Supported by Oxford University, the competition was held in two stages in the fields of technical engineering, computer science, energy, biological science, social science, art, and robotics. / T.T/

The value of Iran’s export of petrochemical products increased by 12.8 percent during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-August 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Mohammad Rezvanifar said that the country exported 24.5 million tons of petrochemicals worth $9.8 billion in the five-month period, indicating also 12.5 percent growth in terms of weight, year on year.

Head of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has said the country’s petrochemical output is estimated to reach 80 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ends in late March 2025).

Noting that one of the main objectives of the Oil Ministry in the current year has been the sustained supply of feed to petrochemical complexes, Morteza Shahmirzaei put the country’s petrochemical exports in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) at 30 million tons.

Back in May, Ahmad Mahdavi Abhari, the director general of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation (APIC), said Iran’s petrochemical output has increased by 15 million tons over the past two years.

Abhari put the country’s current petrochemical output at 82 million tons.

He said Iran’s petrochemical output stood at 67 million tons before late President Raisi took office in August 2021.

The official also noted that the Iranian petrochemical industry has created as many as 143,000 direct jobs in the mentioned period.

He put the current growth of Iran’s petrochemical industry at 40.6 percent up from 27.5 percent in the country’s third five-year development plan.

Earlier in April, Shahmirzaei said the company was planning to complete 13 new petrochemical projects by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to further increase the country’s petrochemical output.

“One of the strategies of the petrochemical industry in the year “production leap with people’s participation” is to put 12 new petrochemical projects into operation by the end of [the current Iranian calendar]1403 and use all available capacities,” the official said.

He stated that the completion of 12 petrochemical projects by the end of this year will have a significant impact on the growth of production and economic development of the country.

The NPC head had previously put the country’s petrochemical production capacity at over 92 million tons, and said: “Today we are almost self-sufficient in the main petrochemical sectors including products and equipment.”

Iran’s petrochemical industry accounts for 28 percent of the region’s petrochemical capacity and 2.7 percent of the world’s petrochemical capacity, he announced.

The petrochemical industry plays a crucial role in Iran’s non-oil economy, as petrochemical export is the second-largest source of revenue for the country after crude oil. Petrochemical exports already constitute nearly 33 percent of the country’s non-oil exports.

According to Shahmirzaei, the company plans to increase its annual petrochemical production capacity to 200 million tons over the next 10 years. /T.T/

The Global Innovation Index (GII) has ranked Tehran as the world’s 38th-largest science and technology (S&T) cluster this year, down from 35th last year, according to a report released on Tuesday by the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The Global Innovation Index ranks the world’s leading economies according to their innovation capabilities.

A common thread among top-performing nations is the presence of thriving science and technology (S&T) clusters. Since 2016, the GII has employed a bottom-up approach to identifying such clusters. This methodology disregards administrative or political borders and instead pinpoints those geographical areas with a high density of inventors and scientific authors.

The resulting clusters identified in this way often span several municipal districts, sub-federal states, and sometimes even two or more countries.

Two innovation metrics are used to compile the top 100 GII S&T clusters worldwide. The first metric focuses on the location of inventors listed in published patent applications under the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treat (PCT).

The second metric considers the authors listed on published scientific articles. S&T clusters – which can be entire regions or cities – serve as the backbone of a robust national innovation ecosystem.

Situated in areas such as San Francisco’s Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Munich, and Paris in Europe, or Bengaluru, Seoul, Shenzhen, and Tokyo in Asia, these S&T clusters are home to renowned universities, brilliant scientists, R&D-intensive companies, and prolific inventors.

It is the collaboration among these entities that results in groundbreaking scientific advancements and inventions that propel national, regional, and global innovation forward.

The GII recognizes the significance of these regional hubs and charts annually the world’s top 100 S&T clusters. These areas boast the highest density of inventors and scientific authors globally.

The GII 2024 also presents S&T clusters beyond the top 100 in order to shed light on other areas around the world with an appreciably high level of science and technology.

In addition, the GII 2024 takes a first step toward highlighting S&T clusters within Africa, a region whose output is typically not taken into account when clustering at the global level.

China, for the second consecutive year, leads with the most clusters (26) in the top 100. The United States follows closely behind with 20 clusters. Germany ranks third with eight clusters in the top 100, with Munich (22nd), Cologne (27th), and Stuttgart (29th) as its top three clusters.

India, with its top cluster of Bengaluru (56th) in southern India, and the Republic of Korea both have four clusters in the top 100. France, the United Kingdom (UK), Japan, and Canada each have three clusters in the top 100.

Paris (12th) leads France’s ranking, while London (21st) represents the United Kingdom’s top cluster. Canada’s top cluster is Toronto, Ontario (54th).

In addition to China, seven other middle-income economies have clusters among the top 100.

They are Brazil (1 cluster), with São Paulo, the sole top 100 S&T cluster within Latin America; Egypt (1), with Cairo, the sole top 100 S&T cluster within Africa; India (4), with Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai; Islamic Republic of Iran (1), with Tehran; Malaysia (2), with Kuala Lumpur and its cross-border clusters shared with Singapore; Russian Federation (1), with Moscow; and Türkiye (2), with Istanbul and Ankara. /T.T/