After 274 younger girls spent two-and-a-half hours working by way of 20 superior math issues for the sixteenth annual Benefit Testing Basis/Jane Road Math Prize for Women (MP4G) contest held Oct. 4-6 at MIT, a six-way tie was introduced.
Hosted by the MIT Division of Arithmetic and sponsored by the Benefit Testing Basis and world buying and selling agency Jane Road, MP4G is the biggest math prize for ladies on the planet. The rivals, who got here from throughout america and Canada, had scored excessive sufficient on the American Arithmetic Competitors examination to use for and be accepted by MP4G. This 12 months, MP4G acquired 891 functions to resolve multistage issues in geometry, algebra, and trigonometry. This 12 months’s issues are listed on the MP4G web site.
Due to the six-way tie, the $50,000 first-place prize and subsequent awards ($20,000 for second, $10,000 for third, $4,000 apiece for fourth and fifth and $2,000 for sixth place) was as a substitute evenly divided, with every winner receiving $15,000. Whereas every scored 15 out of 20, the winners have been truly positioned so as of how they answered probably the most tough issues.
In first place was Shruti Arun, eleventh grade, Cherry Creek Excessive College, Colorado, who final 12 months positioned fourth; adopted by Angela Liu, twelfth grade, home-schooled, California; Sophia Hou, eleventh grade, Thomas Jefferson Excessive College for Science and Know-how, Virginia; Susie Lu, eleventh grade, Stanford On-line Excessive College, Washington, who final 12 months positioned nineteenth; Katie He, twelfth grade, the Frazer College, Florida; and Katherine Liu, twelfth grade, Clements Excessive College, Texas — with the latter two having tied for seventh place final 12 months.
The subsequent spherical of winners, all with a rating of 14, took dwelling $1,000 every: Angela Ho, eleventh grade, Stevenson Excessive College, Illinois; Hannah Fox, twelfth grade, Proof College, California; Selena Ge, ninth grade, Lexington Excessive College, Massachusetts; Alansha Jiang, twelfth grade, Newport Excessive College, Washington; Laura Wang, ninth grade, Lakeside College, Washington; Alyssa Chu, twelfth grade, Rye Nation Day College, New York; Emily Yu, twelfth grade, Mendon Excessive College, New York; and Ivy Guo, twelfth grade, Blair Excessive College, Maryland.
The $2,000 Youth Prize to the highest-scoring contestant in ninth grade or beneath was shared evenly by Selena Ge and Laura Wang. In whole, the occasion awards $100,000 in financial prize to the highest 14 contestants (together with tie scores). Honorable point out trophies have been awarded to the subsequent 25 winners.
“I knew there have been a number of actually good individuals there, so the possibilities of me getting first wasn’t significantly excessive,” Katie He informed a Florida newspaper. “After I heard six methods, I used to be so excited although,” He says, “as a result of that’s simply actually cool that all of us get to be comfortable about our performances and have fun collectively and share the identical pleasure.”
The occasion featured a keynote lecture by Harvard College professor of arithmetic Lauren Williams on the “Combinatorics of Hopping Particles;” talks by Po-Shen Loh, professor of math at Carnegie Mellon College, and Maria Klawe, president of Math for America; and a musical efficiency by the MIT Logarhythms. Final 12 months’s winner, Jessica Wan, volunteered as a proctor. Now a first-year at MIT, Wan gained MP4G in 2022 and 2019. Alumna and doctoral candidate Nitya Mani was readily available to notice, throughout her speech on the awards ceremony, how a lot larger the occasion has grown through the years.
The day earlier than the competitors, attendees gathered to attend campus excursions, icebreaker occasions, and networking periods round MIT, on the Boston Marriott Cambridge, and at Kresge Auditorium, the place the awards ceremony came about. Contestants additionally met MP4G alumnae on the Girls in STEM Ask Me Something occasion.
Math Neighborhood and Outreach Officer Michael King described the occasion as a “virtuous circle” the place alumni return to encourage contributors and assist to maintain the occasion working. “It’s good for MIT, as a result of it attracts high feminine college students from across the nation. The ambiance, with a whole lot of women enthusiastic about math and supported by their households, was fantastic. I assumed to myself, ‘That is potential, to have rooms of math people who aren’t 80 % males.’ The extra girls in math, the extra position fashions. That is what conjures up individuals to enter a self-discipline. MP4G creates a neighborhood of position fashions.”
Chris Peterson SM ’13, director of communications and particular tasks at MIT Admissions and Scholar Monetary Providers, agrees. “Everybody sees and appreciates the aggressive operate that Math Prize performs to establish and have fun these extremely proficient younger mathematicians. What’s much less seen, however equally or much more necessary, is the essential neighborhood position it performs as an affinity neighborhood to construct relationships and a way of belonging amongst these younger girls that can observe and empower them by way of the remainder of their schooling and careers.”
Petersen additionally mentioned life at MIT and the admissions course of on the Artwork of Drawback Fixing’s current free MIT Math Jam, as he has yearly for the previous decade. He was joined by MIT Math doctoral candidate Evan Chen ’18, a former deputy chief of the USA Worldwide Math Olympiad crew.
Many alumnae returned to MIT to take part in a panel for attendees and their dad and mom. For one panelist, MP4G is a household affair. Sheela Devadas, MP4G ’10 and ’11, is the sister {of electrical} engineering and pc science doctoral candidate and fellow MP4G alum Lalita; their mom, Sulochana, is MP4G’s program administrator.
“One of many targets of MP4G is to encourage younger mathematicians,” says Devadas. “Though it’s a competitors, there may be a number of camaraderie between the contestants as nicely, and alternatives to satisfy each present undergraduate STEM majors and older position fashions who’ve pursued math-based careers. This aligned with my expertise at MIT as a math main, the place the ambiance felt each aggressive and collaborative in a means that impressed us.”
“There are lots of structural limitations and interpersonal points going through girls in STEM-oriented careers,” she provides. “One situation that’s typically neglected, which I’ve typically run into, is that each in class and within the office, it may be difficult to get your friends to respect your mathematical talent relatively than pressuring you to tackle duties like note-taking or scheduling which can be seen as extra ‘feminine’ (although these duties are additionally helpful and crucial).”
One other panelist, Jennifer Xiong ’23, talked about her time at MP4G, MIT, and her present position as a pharmaceutical researcher at Moderna.
“MP4G is what made me wish to attend MIT, the place I met my first MIT buddy,” she says. Later, as an MIT pupil, she volunteered with MP4G to assist her keep linked with this system. “MP4G is thrilling as a result of it brings collectively younger women who’re interested by fixing onerous issues, to MIT campus, the place they’ll construct neighborhood and foster their pursuits in math.”
Volunteer Ranu Boppana ’87, the spouse of MP4G founding director and MIT Math Analysis Affiliate Ravi Boppana PhD ’86, appreciates watching how this program has helped encourage girls to pursue STEM schooling. “I’m most struck by the truth that MIT is now gender-balanced for undergraduates, but in addition impressed with what a extra various place it’s in each means.”
The Boppanas have been impressed to discovered MP4G as a result of their daughter was a mathlete in center college and highschool, and sometimes the one woman in lots of regional competitions. “Ravi realized that the ladies wanted a neighborhood of their very own, and position fashions to assist them visualize seeing themselves in STEM.”
“Annually, the perfect a part of MP4G is seeing the ladies create fantastic networks for themselves, as some are sometimes the one women they know interested by math at dwelling. This occasion can also be such a superb introduction to MIT for them. I believe this occasion helps MIT recruit probably the most mathematically proficient women within the nation.”
Ravi additionally just lately created the YouTube channel Boppana Math, geared towards highschool college students. “My objective is to create movies which can be accessible to vibrant highschool college students, such because the contributors within the Math Prize for Women,” says Ravi. “My most up-to-date video, ‘Hypergraphs and Acute Triangles,’ gained an Honorable Point out at this 12 months’s Summer season of Math Exposition.”
The full listing of winners is posted on the Artwork of Drawback Fixing web site. The highest 45 college students are invited to take the 2024 Math Prize for Women Olympiad at their faculties. Canada/USA Mathcamp additionally gives $500 advantage scholarships to the highest 35 MP4G college students who enroll in its summer season program. This displays a $250 enhance to the scholarships. Purposes to compete in subsequent 12 months’s MP4G will open in March 2025.
