Three New Olympians Win in the
XXVIII Colorado Mathematical
Olympiad
This time, on April 22, 2011, Colorado treated the XXVIII Colorado Mathematical Olympiad to a Colorado-perfect blue-skied sunny day. The 196 Olympians came from Aurora, Boulder, Cherry Creek, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Holyoke, Manitou Springs, Monument,
Parker, Rangely, Widefield, and Yoder. We also had guest participants from the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, Mobile, Alabama, who earned their trip to our Olympiad by
winning their local mathematics competition. The Olympians were offered five problems and four hours to solve them and present complete essay-type solutions.
First prizes were awarded by the judges to three Olympians: to Ben Alpert and Christopher Guthrie, seniors at Fairview High School of Boulder, and David Wise, senior homeschooled in Monument. Each will receive a Gold Medal of the Olympiad, a $500 Scholarship to be used at any certified American university or four-year college, a $1000 UCCS Chancellor's Scholarship, Casio fx-9750G11 Graphing Calculator; The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of Coloring and the Colorful Life of Its Creators by Alexander Soifer or a biography of Paul Erdős My Brain is Open by Bruce Schechter; a Wolfram Mathematica for Students Download, and Wolfram/Alpha Paper Sculpture Kit.
Second prize was awarded to Albert Soh, a freshman from Fairview High School of Boulder, CO. He will receive a silver medal of the Olympiad, a $300 Scholarship to be used at any certified American university or four-year college, a $1000 UCCS Chancellor's Scholarship, Casio fx-9750G11 Graphing Calculator; The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of
Coloring and the Colorful Life of Its Creators by Alexander Soifer or My Brain is Open by
Bruce Schechter; a Wolfram Mathematica for Students Download, and Wolfram/Alpha Paper
Sculpture Kit.
Third prizes were awarded to Charles Xu, a senior from Fairview High School in Boulder, CO; and Allan Gardner, a senior from Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs. Each will each receive a bronze medal of the Olympiad, a $1000 UCCS Chancellor's Scholarship; Casio fx-9750G11 Graphing Calculator; My Brain is Open by Bruce Schechter; a Wolfram
Mathematica for Students Download, and Wolfram/Alpha Paper Sculpture Kit.
Forth prize was awarded to Artem Bolshakov, a sophomore from Ridgeview Classical Schools of Fort Collins, CO. He will receive a Casio fx-9750G11 Graphing Calculator; My Brain is Open by Bruce Schechter; a Wolfram Mathematica for Students Download, and Wolfram/Alpha Paper Sculpture Kit.
First Honorable Mention were awarded to the following ten contestants: Kyle Christensen, 10, Fairview High School; Sebastian Rowe, 8, Edison54 JT; Trystan Binkley-Jones; 12, Edison High School; Angela Song, 7, Mountain Ridge Middle School; Katie Wise, 11, homeschooler, Monument; Everett Hildenbrandt, 12, Pine Creek High School; Don Hyun Kim, 11, Regis Jesuit High School; Nina Vendhand, 7, Cresthill Middle School; Robert Miccuilla, 11, Manitou Springs High School; and Rachel Phillips, 10, Widefield High School.
Our guests, Landy Sun, 11, Alabama School of Mathematics and Science and Alexei Pillen, 10, Murphy High School, in Mobile, Alabama will also be awarded First Honorable Mention.
They will receive the a Casio fx-9750G11 Graphing Calculator, the book Colorado Mathematical Olympiad, the First Ten Years by Alexander Soifer, a Wolfram Mathematica Online License, and a Wolfram Mathematica for Students Download.
Second Honorable Mentions were awarded to the following twenty contestants: Kyle Tong, 9, Ponderosa High School; Christina Bassani, 11, Ponderosa High School; Henry Zhang, 10, Fairview High School; George Younger, 7, Colorado Academy; Luke Robinson, 8, Aurora Quest K-8; Jack Uddenberg, 7, Mountain Ridge Middle School; Cody Hutchins, 10, Ponderosa High School; Ryan Reasoner, 12, Pine Creek High School; Josh Vijayam, 11, Pine Creek High School; Raul Ramirez, 8, Aurora Hills Middle School, Lubin Deng, 8, Cherry Creek West Middle School; Chris Del Valle, 12, Coronado High School; Jerry Chen, 7, Cherry Creek West Middle school; Max Farfel, 10, Cherry Creek West Middle School; Annie Lin, 10, Rampart High School; John, Balan, 11, Widefield High School; Robert Iriye, 8, Aurora Quest K-8; Andrew Morton, 9, Rangely High School; Mark Gillespie, 12, Pine Creek High School; Sanjna Bhartiya, 8, Cherry Creek West Middle School.
They will each receive a Casio Scientific Calculator fx-300ES; Wolfram Mathematica for Students Download, and a Mathematics as Problem Solving by Alexander Soifer.
A Creativity Award will be presented to Ben Alpert, a senior, Fairview High School. He will receive a Panasonic iPOD/iPHONE/CD Compact Stereo System.
A Literary Award will be presented to Andrew Purvis, a senior, Manitou Springs High School. He will receive Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins a book by the great Donald Johanson et al.
An Art Award will be presented to Ana Seini Fifita, an eighth grader, Aurora Quest K-8 School. She will receive Graphica book by Wolfram Research.
Those who wish to understand the spirit of the Olympiad are invited to solve some of the Olympiad's five problems.
Here, for example, is a problem Won't you be my neighbor!
Each unit square of a 20112011 square grid is colored in one of 2011 colors so that each color is used. A pair of distinct colors is called a neighbor pair if they appear as colors of a pair of squares sharing a side.
(A). Find the maximum M of the number of neighbor pairs.
(B). Find the minimum m of the number of neighbor pairs.
THIS YEAR'S PRIZE FUND OF THE OLYMPIAD has been generously donated by Casio, Inc., Wolfram Research, City of Colorado Springs, Broadmoor Towne Center Sears Store, Air Academy Dist. 20, School Dist. 11, Manitou Springs School Dist. 14, Falcon Dist. 49, Widefield High School, Cherry Creek West Middle School, Robert and June Ewell, Chancellor,
UCCS, Provost, UCCS, Vice Chancellor for Student Success, UCCS, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, UCCS, College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, UCCS, UCCS Bookstore; and Alexander Soifer.
THE AWARD PRESENTATION PROGRAM will feature a lecture A Proof from the Book, and Review of Solutions of the 28th Colorado Mathematical Olympiad Problems by Alexander Soifer. The following guests of honor, hosts and sponsors will address the winners and present the awards: Chancellor Pamela Shockley-Zalabak, UCCS; Mr. Richard Skorman, Candidate for Mayor of Colorado Springs; Larry Small, Vice Mayor City of Colorado Springs; Greg Hoffman, Personnel Manager, Intermap Technologies, Inc.; Jacob Rhoads, General Manager, Sears Corp.;
Karin Reynolds, Sponsor, Asst. Superintendent, Dist. 20; Brenda LeBrasse, Sponsor, Exec. Director, Dist. 11; Tom Christensen, Dean, College of LAS, UCCS; Alexander Soifer, Chair& Founder, Colorado Math Olympiad.
In the 28 years of Colorado Mathematical Olympiad, about 17,000 students have participated during 1984-2010. They have written over 86,000 essays, and were awarded about $280,000 in prizes. The Olympiad is a unique joint effort of school districts, schools, institutions of higher education, business community and local and State governments.
How to
participate in the 2012 Colorado Mathematical Olympiad
