Eight young women from Taft competed in the Girls in Math at Yale competition, where they took home top honors.
Eight young women from Taft traveled to Yale University last weekend to compete in the second Girls in Math at Yale competition. The group took home top honors at the event.
Conceptualized by the Math Majors of America Tournament for High Schools, Girls in Math at Yale was introduced in the fall of 2018, with the goal of cultivating "a love for math and the sciences in a younger generation and celebrating the diversity that is already present in these fields at the university level." The inaugural event, attended by 50 girls from across the region, was held November 11 and featured both individual and team components. The second event, held last week and won by students from Taft, repeated that format.
"In two rounds of competition, the Taft mathletes dominated, winning first place in the team round and placing Linh Vu '21 and Chloe Ye '20 in the top five of the individual round," said Math Teacher Joseph Zipoli '84. "The individual round embodied the best of mathematical combat, old school style, with drama and controversy at every turn."
Controversy, Zipoli says, rooted in a three-way tie for first place at the end of the individual round. Chloe Ye '20 was one of three competitors with a perfect score at the end of competition. All were moved to the front of the auditorium to sit for a sudden-death tiebreaker.
"We all sat in anxious silence as the girls got to work—it was tense!" notes Zipoli. "Chloe and one of the other competitors raised their hands indicating they had reached solutions at virtually the same instant. Both had the correct answer, though the proctor who fielded the responses accepted the other competitor's answer first. After a brief conference among the organizers, Chloe was awarded second place. It was an incredible finish!"
Congratulations to Julia Kashimura '20, Coco Zhang '20, Anna Serbina '21, Linh Vu '21, Angela Han '20, Catherine Zhao '22, Chloe Ye '20, and Felicia Wang '21 on an exceptional showing at the second Girls in Math at Yale competition.
Math Majors of America Tournament for High Schools (MMATHS) assists universities in hosting their own math tournaments for schools within their state or region and provides a team-based competition that is accessible, both geographically and mathematically, to more high-school students. MMATHS promotes communication between undergraduate students in mathematics across the country. A tournament committee of representatives from each participating university coordinates contest problems, format, and awards.