For the fifth time within the historical past of the annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competitors, and for the fifth yr in a row, MIT swept all 5 of the competition’s high spots.
The highest 5 scorers annually are named Putnam Fellows. Senior Brian Liu and juniors Papon Lapate and Luke Robitaille at the moment are three-time Putnam Fellows, sophomore Jiangqi Dai earned his second win, and first-year Qiao Solar earned his first. Every receives a $2,500 award. That is additionally the fifth time that any faculty has had all 5 Putnam Fellows.
MIT’s workforce additionally got here in first. The workforce was made up of Lapate, Robitaille, and Solar (in alphabetical order); Lapate and Robitaille have been additionally on final yr’s successful workforce. That is MIT’s ninth first-place win prior to now 11 competitions. Groups encompass the three high scorers from every establishment. The establishment with the first-place workforce receives a $25,000 award, and every workforce member receives $1,000.
First-year Jessica Wan was the top-scoring girl, ending within the high 25, which earned her the $1,000 Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize. She is the eighth MIT pupil to obtain this honor because the award was created in 1992. That is the sixth yr in a row that an MIT girl has received the prize.
In whole, 69 MIT college students scored inside the high 100. Past the highest 5 scorers, MIT took 9 of the subsequent 11 spots (every receiving a $1,000 award), and 7 of the subsequent 9 spots (incomes $250 awards). Of the 75 receiving honorable mentions, 48 have been from MIT. A complete of three,988 college students took the examination in December, together with 222 MIT college students.
This examination is taken into account to be probably the most prestigious university-level arithmetic competitors in the USA and Canada.
The Putnam is thought for its issue: Whereas an ideal rating is 120, this yr’s high rating was 90, and the median was simply 2. Whereas many MIT college students scored effectively, the Division of Arithmetic is happy with everybody who simply took the examination, says Professor Michel Goemans, head of the Division of Arithmetic.
“Yr after yr, I’m so impressed by the sheer variety of college students at MIT that take part within the Putnam competitors,” Goemans says. “In no different faculty or college on the planet can one discover tons of of scholars who get a kick out of excited about math issues. So refreshing!”
Provides Professor Bjorn Poonen, who helped MIT college students put together for the examination this yr, “The unbelievable competitors efficiency is only one manifestation of MIT’s vibrant group of scholars who love doing math and discussing math with one another, college students who by means of their onerous work on this atmosphere excel in methods past competitions, too.”
Whereas the annual Putnam Competitors is run to hundreds of undergraduate arithmetic college students throughout the USA and Canada, in recent times round 70 of its high 100 performers have been MIT college students. Since 2000, MIT has positioned among the many high 5 groups 23 instances.
MIT’s success within the Putnam examination isn’t stunning. MIT’s current Putnam coaches are four-time Putnam Fellow Bjorn Poonen and three-time Putnam Fellow Yufei Zhao ’10, PhD ’15.
MIT can be a high vacation spot for medalists collaborating within the Worldwide Arithmetic Olympiad (IMO) for highschool college students. Certainly, during the last decade MIT has enrolled nearly each American IMO medalist, and extra worldwide IMO gold medalists than the colleges of another single nation, in keeping with forthcoming analysis from the World Expertise Fund (GTF), which affords scholarship and coaching applications for math Olympiad college students and coaches.
IMO participation is a powerful predictor of future achievement. In response to the Worldwide Arithmetic Olympiad Basis, about half of Fields Medal winners are IMO alums — nevertheless it’s not the one ingredient.
“Recruiting probably the most gifted college students is just the start. A top-tier college training — with glorious professors, supportive mentors, and an interesting peer group — is essential to unlocking their full potential,” says GTF President Ruchir Agarwal. “MIT’s sustained Putnam success exhibits how the suitable situations ship spectacular outcomes. The catalytic response of MIT’s focus of math expertise and the nurturing atmosphere of Constructing 2 ought to speed up developments in elementary science for years and many years to come back.”
Many MIT mathletes see competitions not solely as a technique to hone their mathematical aptitude, but in addition as a technique to create a powerful sense of group, to assist encourage and educate the subsequent era.
Chris Peterson SM ’13, director of communications and particular initiatives at MIT Admissions and Pupil Monetary Companies, factors out that many MIT college students with competitors math expertise volunteer to assist run applications for Ok-12 college students together with HMMT and Math Prize for Women, and mentor analysis initiatives by means of the Program for Analysis in Arithmetic, Engineering and Science (PRIMES).
Most of the high scorers are additionally alumni of the PRIMES highschool outreach program. Two of this yr’s Putnam Fellows, Liu and Robitaille, are PRIMES alumni, as are 4 of the subsequent high 11, and 6 out of the subsequent 9 winners, together with most of the college students receiving honorable mentions. Pavel Etingof, a math professor who can be PRIMES’ chief analysis advisor, states that among the many 25 high winners, 12 (48 %) are PRIMES alumni.
“We at PRIMES are very happy with our alumnae’s unbelievable displaying on the Putnam Competitors,” says PRIMES director Slava Gerovitch PhD ’99. “PRIMES serves as a pipeline of mathematical excellence from highschool by means of undergraduate research, and past.”
Alongside the identical traces, a collaboration between the MIT Division of Arithmetic and MISTI-Africa has despatched MIT college students with Olympiad expertise overseas through the Unbiased Actions Interval (IAP) to coach highschool college students who hope to compete for his or her nationwide groups.
First-years at MIT additionally take class 18.A34 (Mathematical Downside Fixing), identified informally because the Putnam Seminar, not solely to hone their Putnam examination expertise, but in addition to make new pals.
“Many individuals consider math competitions as primarily a technique to establish and acknowledge expertise, which in fact they’re,” says Peterson. “However the group convened by and thru these competitions generates academic externalities that collectively exceed the sum of particular person accomplishment.”
Math Neighborhood and Outreach Officer Michael King additionally notes the camaraderie that varieties across the check.
“My favourite time of the Putnam day is correct after the issue session, when the scholars all bounce up, run over to their pals, and start speaking animatedly,” says King, who additionally took the examination as an undergraduate pupil. “They cheer one another’s successes, debate downside options, commiserate over missed solutions, and share humorous tales. It’s at all times superb to work with the perfect math college students on the planet, however probably the most rewarding facet is seeing the friendships that develop.”
A full checklist of the winners will be discovered on the Putnam web site.
