In the semester preceding the summer school, Gergely Harcos and Péter Maga gave an introductory course about automorphic forms at Eötvös Loránd University. This helped us to gain insight into automorphic forms, and for me, it opened a whole new area of mathematics. After this great course, four of us (Bálint Mogyorósi, Dávid Tóth, Gergely Jakovác and I) decided to participate in the summer school at Rényi Institue of Mathematics. We were not only students who wanted to understand the lectures, but we also helped the foreign participants to enjoy their time in Budapest.
The summer school had four invited speakers: Jasmin Matz, Paul Nelson, Danylo Radchenko and Benjamin Schraen. They are professors at some of the greatest universities in Europe, which attracted a lot of students from all over the world. Each speaker taught a minicourse, and each minicourse involved a small more practical part and discussion part, too. So the speakers helped us to understand as much as possible. Each minicourse focused on an application of automorphic forms, so that everyone could find the topic closest to their research or interest. Benjamin Schraen's lectures were the closest to me, because I am more of an algebraic person. However, this minicourse was also the hardest for me, because I realized that I had lots of deficiencies to follow everything in detail.
For all of us, the summer school was an unbelievable experience, because my Hungarian colleagues and I could learn from top university professors about one of the central areas of modern mathematics. Furthermore, being helpers in the summer school was a great opportunity for us to meet and get to know students and professors from other universities. In my opinion, this was a good time to learn about several foreign universities.
There were two pizza parties during the week, where we could relax a bit between the lectures. On the first day, there was also a wine and cheese party where we could discuss some topics beyond mathematics. Moreover, during the coffee breaks, we could discuss our misunderstandings or difficulties with the lectures besides having great cookies and juices.
After the lectures, some of the foreign participants and I went to see some beautiful parts of Budapest such as Margaret Island, the Fine Art Museum of Budapest, the Liget Park, and we spent some great nights together. I think most of the afternoons were spent with sightseeing, playing games, and discussions about mathematics and other topics.
Overall, the summer school was a fun and memorable experience. I hope that when the participants look back on this week, they will have many stories to tell, both mathematical and interpersonal. I know I will.