The Western Mathematics Exposition Competition

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Welcome to the Western University Mathematics Exposition Competition. In this competition, we aim to foster interest in higher mathematics among high school students and offer an opportunity for students to experience learning beyond the high school curriculum and practicing skills for mathematical research.

This year, we introduced videos and creative artifacts, in addition to posters from the competition last year, as a new form of presentation to allow a greater extent of creativity. Guidelines will be provided to guide the participants in developing their project.

We would love to invite enthusiastic high school students from grades 9 to 12 to participate. Students will join as a team of 2-3 students and work with an undergraduate mentor or a mathematics teacher to research one of the announced themes and develop a poster, a video, or a mathematical artifact.

The winners will be announced during the award ceremony. The award ceremony will take place at Western University at the end of March and early April. The winners of the competition will be awarded cash prizes to share as a team.

We are committed to making all creations available at all participating high schools as well as Middlesex College in weekly showcase form which will be available online.


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 10th


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. Therefore, all participating teams will have a chance to win two awards/prizes from this competition if their projects satisfy all requirements. 


Team Registration:

High school students can register in teams of 2 or 3 to participate in the competition. Each team can choose to prepare a math poster, a video, or a mathematical artifact under the supervision of their mentors. The final product created by the team must reflect the students’ research and understanding of the topic. Emphasis will be put on their explanation of the topic at hand.

1. You must register with a team to be qualified for our competition. We do not accept solo participants. 
2. The registration fee of the competition is $65+tax per team. The payment can be made by credit card or debit card.
3.  The form can be started by any member of the team of the mentor, however, all the participants need to be present to be able to fill in personal information in the form.  
4. Should you experience any financial difficulties; financial assistance is available upon request.

 

Team Registration Form

 


Mentor Registration:

High school teachers, teacher candidates from the Faculty of Education, and senior undergraduate students from Western University can register as mentors for the teams. If you know a team or can assemble a team to mentor, you will automatically be assigned as the mentor of that team. Otherwise, we will assign mentors to teams that don't have one. In this process, students in programs from the math department will be given higher priority.

Each mentor will primarily serve as a supervisor and will:

  • Help their team identify a topic of interest.
  • Ensure their teams stay on the right track and assist them with time management and meeting deadlines.
  • Verify that the submitted projects meet the requirements.
  • Submit the final project; the submission link will only be available to the team mentors.

The estimated time commitment for mentoring each team is 5-10 hours. The team members and their mentor can decide what portion of their prize will go to their mentor if they win.

 

Mentor Registration Form

 


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 SciencesThe Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, and the Canadian Math Society.  

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Past Competitions 

 

Highlights of 2022-23 Competition