Highlights of 2023-24 Competition

In 2024 competition, we introduced videos and mathematical artifacts project format, in addition to posters, as the new form of presentation to allow a greater extent of creativity.

In total 92 students from 16 schools registered in 34 teams of two/three. The teams were mentored by 29 teacher, teacher candidate or undergraduate student mentors. Thirthy four projects were submitted of which 22 were posters, 9 videos, and 3 mathematical artifacts.

Timeline

Mentor Application: Opens on November 1st.
Team Application: Opens on November 15th
Team Application: closes on January 10th (Extended up to January 15.)
Submission Deadline: February 16th before 11: 55 pm ET
Theme and Format: This will be released on January 10 ^th
Prize ceremony: Saturday, March 16

Prizes

Thanks to the support of our generous donors and sponsors, there will be prizes for the winner(s) of the competition. As there are three categories in this competition (poster, video, and mathematical artifact), each category will be evaluated individually and the winner(s) for each category will be selected based on the evaluation. The team that scores the highest among their respective category will receive $1000 in cash. If enough quality submissions are received, the judges may decide to assign prizes to the teams with the second and third-highest scores in the category. In that case, the projects ranked the second and third will receive $700 and $400, respectively.

This year, we are introducing a special category: Women in Math . If your project includes the representation of women in math and the representation is properly explained in your work, your team will be automatically qualified to compete in this special category which has a separate award for the winning team regardless of your project type (poster, video, and mathematical artifact) . This special category awards $500 to the team that utilizes creativity to enhance women's engagement and representation in mathematics. T herefore, all participating teams will have a chance to win two awards/prizes from this competition if their projects satisfy all requirements.

Themes

Theme 1: Extra-ordinary mathematics: Present a mathematical concept that you've taken the time to learn outside of class.
Theme 2: Crossing over mathematics: Present an application of mathematics that bridges mathematics with other disciplines.
Theme 3: Mathematical history: Present an interesting story about the development of mathematics and explain why it is relevant to understanding contemporary mathematics.

Winners:

Winners of Poster Projects

Gold Medal Winning Poster:
- Title: Non-Euclidean Geometry; Bending the plane and bending our minds!
- Team Members: Jinyang Hong and Roderick Liao
- School name: Mentor College
- Mentor: Virginia Porlier (Teacher Mentor)
Silver Medal Winning Poster:
- Title: Untangling Mathematics
- Team Members: Zainab Rizvi, Katherine Zhang, and Daniel Zhong
- School Name: London Central Secondary School
- Mentor: Rolan Fahd (Student Mentor)
Bronze Medal Winning Poster:
- Title: Calculating Crime
- Team Members: Mirella Costa, Hannah Kakar, and Hilan Tawfiq
- School Name: Saint Jean de Brebeuf, Hamilton Ontario
- Mentor: Bahar Zali Kah Kesh (Student Mentor)

Winners of Video Projects

Gold Medal Winning Video:
- Title: Can We Predict the Future? The applications of deterministic chaos.
- Team Members: Liam Strilchuk and River Yu
- School name: Preston High School
- Mentor: Laura Kingston (Teacher Mentor)
Silver Medal Winning Video:
- Title: Penrose Tilings
- Three Students (London Central Secondary School
- Team Members: Alice (Siyoon) Kim, Selena Isabella Xia, and Justin Zhou
- School Name: London Central Secondary School
- Mentor: Kaysie Barrett (Teacher Candidate Mentor)

Winner of the Mathematical Artifact Projects

Gold Medal Winning Mathematical Artifacts:
- Title: The Wallendov Harmonizer: A Mechanical Fourier Graphing Machine
- Team Members: Stoyan Sendov and Rayne Wallace
- School name:London Central Secondary School
- Mentor: Phillip Michael Bannon (Teacher Mentor)

Winner of Special Category (Women in Math)

Gold Medal Winning Project:
- Title of the poster: Maryna Viazovska: The Face of Ukrainian Mathematics
- Team Members: Ehsan Dukhan (Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School) and Danylo Ohorodny (Oakridge Secondary School)
- Mentor: Isha Khurana (Student Mentor)
Honorable Mention:
- Title of the video: Emmy Noether: A Journey Through Her Life
- Team Members: Paige Bloomfield and Chloe Watson
- School Name: Medway High School
- Mentor: Abigail Kushnir (Student Mentor)

Organizing Team:

Organizing Committee

Dr. Asghar Ghorbanpour, Coordinator
Liang-Chen (Joanne) Chien, Coordinator Assistant
Anna Ng, Marketing and Outreach Director
Hagar Islam Mohammad Ali Graphic Designer
Laura Pulgarin Cardenas, Graphic Designer
Adrian Chitan, Mathematics Element Advisor

Judicial Panel

Dr. Matthias Franz, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
Dr. Anibal Medina Mardones, Assisstant Professor, Department of Mathematics
Dr. Brett Nasserden, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Mathematics
Shubhankar, PhD Candidate, Department of Mathematics
Marwa Tuffaha, PhD Candidate, Department of Mathematics
Esther Yartey, PhD Candidate, Department of Mathematics
Mojgan Ezadian, PhD Candidate, Department of Mathematics
Doli Rani Pal, PhD Candidate, Department of Mathematics
Siyi Zhang, M.Sc. Student, Department of Mathematics
Blake Whiting, M.Sc. Student, Department of Mathematics

Volunteers

Sponsors:

This is made possible by the generosity of our donors as well as the financial support from the Department of Mathematics, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, and the Canadian Math Society.