Minecraft for Dummies authored by MMC Student

Long time Metroplex Math Circle participant and Stanford Online High School sophomore, Jacob Cordeiro, has authored Minecraft for Dummies which has just been published by Wiley.

The open-ended nature of Minecraft has made it very popular with young problem solvers and through the use of the game’s various building materials some users have built extraordinary creations.  Jacob applied many of the lessons of problem solving and logic that he learned at the Metroplex Math Circle to the entire book and especially to the fourth chapter.

The book is now available for pre-ordering or download at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Google Books and Wiley.

Please send us news about other MMC students and alumni and let us know how the Metroplex Math Circle is helping them achieve their goals.

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Vi Hart: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant

While we are on break from Metroplex Math Circle for the winter here is a great new video from Vi Hart.

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2011 Math Prize for Girls Winners

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s contest held at MIT:

1. Victoria Xia, VA
2. Danielle Wang, CA
3. Julia Huang, CA
4. JungYoon (Sara) Kim, VA
5. Frances Ding, TN
6. Sheela Devadas, MA
7. Christina Chen, MA
8. Megan Chen, IL
9. Angela Gu, CA
10. DiYun (Susan) Sun, Canada

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UT Arlington Math Competition Results

The results from the May 14th UT Arlington Math Competition are in and many MMC participants were recognized in the top 5:

1. Pradhith Konduri, Harmony School of Excellence
2. Niranjan Balachandar, Frankford Middle School
3. Kevin Chang, Jasper High School
4. Paul Cruz , Harmony School of Excellence
5. Dominic Yurk, Paschal High School  /  Victor Zhou, St. Marks  (tie)

Congratulations to all of the participants and to Dr. Grantcharov on an a well-attended and challenging competition with participants coming from as far away as Houston.

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Another Math Circle Veteran Wins the Top Prize in Intel Science Talent Search

Evan O’Dorney, an active participant in the Berkeley Math Circle was the $100,000 winner of this year’s Intel Science Talent Search.  He joins last years’ winner, Amy Chyao, in continuing the connection between math circles and this prestigious contest.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 15, 2011 – Honoring high school seniors with exceptional promise in math and science, Intel Corporation and Society for Science & the Public (SSP) today announced the winners of America’s most elite and demanding high school research competition, the Intel Science Talent Search.

Evan O’Dorney, 17, of Danville, Calif., won the top award of $100,000 from the Intel Foundation for his mathematical project in which he compared two ways to estimate the square root of an integer. Evan discovered precisely when the faster way would work. As a byproduct of Evan’s research he solved other equations useful for encrypting data. This furthered an interest he developed as early as age 2, when he was checking math textbooks out of the library.

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Dr. Andreescu at Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival

There is no Metroplex Math Circle this coming weekend, but if you are fortunate enough to be in the Houston area on Saturday, March 19, 2011 you can meet Dr. Titu Andreescu at the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival.  Math Circle directors from around the country will be meeting in Houston and participating in this unique even which is open to the public with advance registration.

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Zvezdelina Stankova Wins Nation’s Highest Math Teaching Award

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The Mathematical Association of America awarded Dr. Zvezdelina Stankova the Haimo Award for distinguished college teaching of math.  Dr. Stankova spoke to the Metroplex Math Circle last month and she is the founder and director of the excellent, Berkeley Math Circle.

Please take the time to read the article and watch the video above which speak to the positive impact realized by Zvezdelina and math circles in her native Bulgaria and in the US.

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D Magazine Interview with Amy Chyao

Amy Chyao was also recently interviewed by D Magazine.

How a Plano Student Uses Light to Fight Cancer

Amy Chyao is a self-taught chemistry superstar and certifiable genius. But it’s not a big deal.

Q: In May, you won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a project titled “Lights, Quantum Dots, Action!” Can you explain the project in a way that even I will understand?

A: It’s really not that complicated, in essence. It’s for a cancer treatment. Chemotherapy attacks healthy cells. And surgery can cause infections. So the good thing about this treatment, photodynamic therapy, or PDT, is that it doesn’t have either of these problems. The only real reason that we don’t use it today is because it’s activated by light, and it’s hard to penetrate deeper into the skin to reach the deeper tumors. What we were working on was making a drug that will allow us to reach deeper tumors with PDT. It’s an existing treatment. We’re just trying to design a new drug that will help it be even better.

 

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Amy Chyao to Sit with the First Lady at State of the Union

Our own Amy Chyao is receiving a great honor tonight as she has been invited to sit with the First Lady during the State of the Union speech:

PLANO (January 25, 2011)—Among First Lady Michelle Obama’s guests Tuesday night during the State of the Union address will be Plano East High School junior Amy Chyao, 16, and her father.

Chyao was chosen after meeting President Barack Obama at the White House Science Fair, where she presented a design for a cancer-treating photo-sensitizer.

Mr. Obama later called her an example of America’s potential in one of his speeches.

Chyao said she’s honored by the invitation.

She met then first lady Laura Bush in 2007 after she won the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

 

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Math Circle Tourism – Stanford

One of the great benefits of discovering Math Circles is seeing how thriving math circles around the country are organizing to solve the same set of logistical problems.  I was particularly impressed by the Stanford Math Circle which I was fortunate enough to visit this past week.

Attendance

The first session of their new year was very well attended by 70-80 people.  This was particularly impressive considering the traffic and travel time facing parents on a Thursday evening in the Bay area. Like our own circle the attendees ranged substantially in age and included some very talented and engaged 7 year olds.

Organizers and Speakers

The Stanford Math Circle is directed by Dr. Dana Paquin who completed her PhD at Stanford and experienced Eastern European problem solving through a special program in Budapest, Hungary.  The speaker for this session was Dr. Ravi Vakil the faculty sponsor for the circle and an extremely accomplished mathematician as well as a teenage problem solver.

Content

Dr. Vakil’s lecture was on “The Mathematics of Doodling” and followed the model of our most successful speakers. He began with a very simple and visual problem that fascinated him at 5 years old.  From that intuitive basis he built up a deeper understanding by challenging the students to solve problems.  By the end he connected his talk to contemporary research being done by some of the most accomplished mathematicians.

Format and Best Practices

Like our own math circle, Stanford runs for 2 hours with a snack break mid way through.  Unlike MMC, Stanford does require its students to sign up and pay a nominal fee to participate on an ongoing basis.  I think this has merit in terms of promoting regular attendance and it also allows the Stanford Math Circle to print out name tags for their regular attendees.  I also liked the way that they offered hand outs with relevant news and problem sets at the beginning of the session.

I’d like to thank Dr. Paquin again for allowing me to attend her thriving Math Circle!  I would encourage others who are travelling on business or pleasure to look for one of the many math circles around the country and ask the director if you can attend.

– David Cordeiro

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