Community News Banner Year for Upper School Mathletes BB&N math students strutted their stuff last year earning fantastic results across a variety of competitions. Read below for some of the impressive highlights. This spring, 12 members of the BB&N math team (two teams of six) participated in the international Purple Comet competition. Each team had 90 minutes to solve 30 problems. While searching the internet was not allowed, students were allowed to use technology (calculators, math software, writing their own computer programs) along with pencils and paper. One of the teams (named VAVAGE, an acronym of their names) correctly solved 29 of the 30 problems which placed them tied for first (with two other teams) out of more than 600 teams from schools around the world, and alone for first out of all 58 teams from Massachusetts. The other team ( JC RATS) solved 20 of the 30 problems which placed them 38th out of more than 600 teams from schools of fewer than 1,200 students from around the world and eighth out of 40 teams in Massachusetts. VAVAGE: Victor Chu ’18, Gabe DeSantis ’16, Amy Gu ’16, Aaron Kaufer ’17, Vishnu Murale ’17, Elisa Tabor ’18 JC RATS: Samiha Datta ’19, Ryan Guan ’17, Cassandra Kane ’17, Theo Lukin-Yelin ’18, Aurash Vatan ’19, Jeffrey Yao ’17 In other math team news, BB&N recorded its best-ever finish in the New England Math League competition last year, finishing eighth out of 150 teams. The NEML consists of six-question contests that 40-50 students take each month. The School also finished fourth in the Small Schools division at the state tournament, which earned BB&N a spot at the end-of-year New England tournament. In addition to these team achievements, two students stood out this year with their individual accomplishments: Victor Chu ’18 and Aaron Kaufer ’17. Chu qualified for the second round of the Massachusetts Math Olympiad. Of the 2,000 students who competed in the first round, only 100 were invited to the second round. When the top 20 finishers were announced, Chu was thrilled to have earned third place overall. In addition, only one student in New England placed better than Victor on NEML contests last year. Kaufer is one of three BB&N students who were accepted into the yearlong, prestigious MIT PRIMES program. “Kaufer delved into a very challenging problem for the last two months of school and was able to generate a pretty remarkable formula for solving it,” says Upper School Math Chair Chip Rollinson. “He is now starting to write up his solution for (hopeful) publication.”
Members of the JC RATS math team collaborate in the Purple Comet math competition.
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