Math Zoom Participant Won Bronze Medal for the US Team at CGMO

Aug. 26, 2011

Two time Math Zoom Camp alumni Sarah Herrmann, brought home the bronze medal from the China Girls Mathematical Olympiad (CGMO). Sarah participated in Math Zoom Summer Programs in 2008 and 2009.

The girls-only international competition, featuring 192 competitors, was held in Shenzhen, China. The tenth annual Olympiad drew 192 girls from countries such as Japan, Russia, the United States, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and China. The competition was originally established as a regional competition for teams of female high school students from China and other eastern Asian countries (including Russia). Several years ago China expanded the competition to countries from around the world, with the USA, Canada, South Africa, and Australia among the invitees.  The team was chosen from the highest scorers in a series of competitions sponsored by MAA. Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) are the joint sponsors of the U.S. team.

May 10, 2011, Star Student in the News

We are starting a star student presentation series on our website. The first featured student is Bovey Rao from Utah. Bovey is a passionate math lover. A story about him was published in today's newspaper The Salt Lake Tribune. In this interview, there is a specific mentioning about Bovey's experience at Math Zoom Summer Camp.

"Bovey, who plans to attend either the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the California Institute of Technology, said his math skills improved exponentially while attending Math Zoom Academy in California last summer. Despite all his success, he's not satisfied with where he stands.

"I still need to get better," he said. "At math camp, there were a lot of people there that were light years ahead of me. I want to improve and get as good as them.""

Bovey and Dr. Wang at the MathCounts National Competition

May 8, 2011, Alex Hong and Celine Liang – Member of MathCounts National Champion Team

MathCounts 2011 National Competition was held from May 6 to 8 in Washington DC. Alex Hong, Andrew He, Celine Liang and Sean Shi won the team championship for California Team. The Michigan team took the second place, and Texas team placed third. We are so proud that Math Zoom students Alex Hong and Celine Liang made half of the winning California team. See photos.

                               Alex, Celine and Dr. Wang at MathCounts National                      The Champion Team – California                                                     

Jan. 5, 2011, AMC 8 State Winners

The AMC 8 was held last November. Some say it's hard, and some say it's easy. Let's look at the statistics. The cutoff score for the top 5% is 17, which is lower than usual. That tells us it does look harder than usual. However, there are more perfect scores, a.k.a. State Winners than usual. There are total 237 perfect scorers in the United States. Among them, I see quite a few familiar names that are Math Zoom participants. They are

Michael Lu, Alap Sahoo, Tony Zhang, Alexander Hong, Michael Kural, Patrick Hompe, Hannah Field, Nicholas Rauen, Bovey Rao, Sam Tan.

Several WMTC US Team members are on the list. They are Alexander Hong, Eric Tang, Nicholas Rauen, Eric Chen, Shyam Narayanan. Samuel Reinehr was selected but was not able to make the trip.

Dec. 14, 2010, Henry Wang Got early Action to Stanford University

While some of the seniors barely completed their college applications, Henry Wang has received early action to Stanford University. Henry Wang is a long term Math Zoom participant. He has got perfect score on AMC 10, and qualified USAMO. Henry was a US team member for the WMTC, and demonstrated extraordinary maturity on the trip to China. Henry goes to Whitney High School in Cerritos, California and has been a model student. He is also an excellent chess player.

Around the same time last year, another long term Math Zoom participant Tony Jin got early action to both Stanford and Princeton University. We have been seeing a pattern that not only technology institutions like Cal Tech and MIT value math talents, but also Ivy League colleges and other top colleges. This is because math builds the foundation for students' skills that make them successful in advanced studies and professional careers.

Nov. 30, 2010, Alex Hong and Zack Lee won Gold Medal at WMTC

At the World Math Team Championship – WMTC held in Beijing on Nov. 25th to 28th, the US teams won two gold medals by Alex Hong (middle school level) and Zack Lee (primary school level). The WMTC is a new international contest that was held in Beijing China for the first time this year. There were 73 teams 600 students selected from 10 countries and regions participated the contest. The contest consisted of Team Round, Relay Round, and Individual Round at the three levels of high school, middle school, and primary school. Four US teams 27 students led by Math Zoom directors Dr. Kevin Wang and Ms. Kelly Ren participated the contest at all three levels. The Gold Medal was given to the top 6 individuals and teams at each level. It's worth to mention that the competition for the middle school level was quite heated. The first 3 places tied with perfect score 40, and the 4th and 5th places tied with 39. After a stressful tie-breaker round in front of 600 people, Alex Hong from the US team won the 4th place.

Nov. 8, 2010, Math Zoom participant Tristan Carmean was honored by President Obama

Tristan Carmean, a Math Zoom participant from Maryland, was honored by President Obama at White House for his accomplishment in math competitions. Tristan was one of the 24 students from across the nation who received this honor for their accomplishment in math, science, technology and engineering.  Here are some articles from The Baltimore Sun and Gazette Articles about Tristan Carmean!

May 10, 2010, Math Zoom Students and Alumni Selected for US Team and MOSP

- Kevin Yin and Thomas Swayze qualified for MOSP. MOSP stands for Math Olympiad Summer Program for the top 50 winners in the US Math Olympiad, including the US Team members for the IMO (International Math Olympiad). This is a 3-4 week residential program, all expense paid and no charge to the participants.
 
- Cynthia Day and Adisa Kruayatidee are selected for the US Team for the International Girl's Math Olympiad in China.

May 9, 2010, Math Zoom Participants in the MathCounts National 2010

- Patrick Pan, team Texas, won the Championship of the State of Texas.
- Jimmy Park, team Washington DC, won the 2nd place of the Washington D. C. state contest.
- Michael Kurel, team Connecticut, won the Championship of the State of Connecticut.
- Eli Shayer, team Alaska, won the State of Alaska.

April 8, 2010  USA(J)MO Qualifiers from Math Zoom
AMC published the list of the USAMO and USAJMO Qualifiers today. For USAMO, AMC 12 writers with index of 208.5 and above, and AMC 10 writers achieving an AIME score of at least 11 are selected. For USAJMO, AMC10 writers required an index of at least 188.5. The following Math Zoom participants (not including the students who only took the tests at Math Zoom) are listed in the list.

Seung Jo Yoo
Leon Yao
Calvin Huang
Paolo Gentili
Rebecca Tang
Cynthia Day
Roger Sheu
Kevin Yin
Tony Jin
Ji Hoon Kang
Thomas Swayze
Jong Wook Kim
Adisa Kruayatidee
Alexander Clifton
Matthew Rauen
Sean Jaw
Simon Wu
Luda Zhao

March 20th, 2010 State Level MathCounts Winners at California State Contest
MathCounts California state competition was held today at UCI and Stanford University. The Southern California contest had about 150 participants. About 20 Math Zoom students and alumini participated in the state level contest. 5 of them are on the top 10 list as follows.

Mark Huang
Paolo Gentili
Michael Zhao
Bryan Brzycki
Tony Zhang

March 10th, 2010 AIME Qualifiers from Math Zoom
The combined AMC 10/12 A and B results are updated here. The AIME qualifying score from AMC 12A/B is lowered to 88.5. For AMC10A/B, it’s 118.5, not as dramatic as AMC12. Experts comment that it may be because the top 1% of the AMC10 students are strong enough to handle the challenges posted this year. For AMC 12, since it generates a bigger percentage 5% of the contestants for AIME qualifiers, the difference is better shown. Anyway, based on what’s being reported to us so far, the following students qualified AIME.

Aritro Biswas
Alexander Clifton
Bryan Brzycki
Calvin Huang
Christopher Hazard
Corey Chen
Cynthia Day
David Ke
Henry Wang
Hyun Jong Kim
Jakob Weisblat
Jonathan Lee
Jongwoon Park
Jonwook Kim
Jinseong Kim
Joyce Shi
Kevin Yang
Kevin Yin
Luda Zhao
Leon Yao
Mark Huang
Patrick Pan
Raku Watari
Roger Sheu
Sara Akgul
Sarah Hermann
Stephen Yoo
Soumya Basu
Tiffany Ding
Vinson Luo

February 27, 2010  Top Winners in Mathcounts Chapter competitions.

• At the East San Gabriel Chapter Mathcounts contest held in Cal Poly Pomona, Math Zoom student Bryan Brzycki won the first place, and Corey Chen won the sixth place.  Jerry Li 8th place, Robert Wu 9th place, Brandon Luo 11th place, Jeffrey Ding 12th place. Bryan, Corey, Jerry, Robert and Brandon advanced to the state level.
• At the South Bay / Santa Monica Chapter Mathcounts contest, Math Zoom student Chris Kymn won the third place, also advanced to the state level.
• In the Pasadena /Long Beach chapter level competition, Math Zoom students Tony Zhang is the 1st Place Individual and Countdown winner! Jason Hu won the 4th place individual. Congratulations!
• In the Washington DC Chapter MathCounts contest, Math Zoom student Jimmy Park won the 2nd Place!
• Math Zoom Students are Top Winners in the Orange County MathCounts Chapter contest onFebruary 21st, 2010.

Orange County Chapter:
1st Place Individual: Hyun Jong Kim – Parks Junior High School
4th Place Individual: Mark Huang – Fairmont Private School
5th Place Individual: Vinson Luo – Sierra Vista Middle School
Young Hoon Kang – Rancho San Joaquin Middle School

1st Place Countdown: Mark Huang – Fairmont Private School
3rd Place Countdown: Hyun Jong Kim – Parks Junior High School

January 13th, 2010 Kevin Yin Selected for the National WWTBAM – The Only One from SoCal
The Joint Mathematics Meeting is an annual conference held jointly by several big math organizations. This year it is held in San Francisco. What's special this year is that the first national "Who Wants to be a Mathematician" contest (sponsored by AMS, American Math Society) takes place at this meeting. The previous WWTBAM contests were all local runs at various locations, including the one at Southern California in December 2008, hosted by Math Zoom.

The contest will be held tomorrow (Thursday Jan 14, 2010) at the Moscone Conferece Center. Ten students from all over US were chosen to participate in this contest. The winner of this contest receives $5000 as prize. In fact all participats for this final event receive a cash prize.

Kevin Yin, one of the students from Math Zoom, has been selected. AMS covers the airfare and hotel for him and a parent. Kevin is the onkly contestant selected from Southern California. Dr. Kevin Wang also was there today in San Francisco, going to the contest tomorrow to support him.

December 9th, 2009  SCMO Final Extravaganza – A Huge Success
Math Zoom Academy presented the final extravaganza of the Southern California Math Olympiad 2009 on December 6, 2009 at Sage Hill High School in Newport Beach. For more info about SCMO, click here. The event started with a talk given by Math Professor Dr. Hongkai Zhao from UCI. Afterwards, Ms. Kelly Ren showed some interesting pictures taken at the major math contest events.

The high energy Team Challenge started at 2:45PM, and lasted for one hour. Contestants selected from the written round held in October are assigned into 4 teams Red, Yellow, Blue and Green. The Grand Challenge started at around 4:00PM, while the first presenter started to work on the problems as early as half an hour before that. The judge panel of the Grand Round:

• Dr. Kevin Wang, Academic Director at Math Zoom Academy;
• Dr. Hongkai Zhao, Math Professor at UCI;
• Dr. Mihaela Vajiac, Math Professor at Chapman University;
• Mr. Noureddine Alam, Math Department Chair at Sage Hill High School.

Here is the result of the SCMO Final Rounds:

    * SCMO Grand Challenge:
      1st place winner: George Xing, 12th Grade, Irvine.
      2nd place winners: Kevin Yin, 10th Grade, San Marino. David Yang, 9th Grade, Diamond Bar.

    * SCMO Team Challenge.
      1st place winner: Red Team: Lisa Beckmann, Aaron Cheng, Daniel Suryakusuma, Matthew Voss, Dai Yang, Leon Zhou, Guanyang Yu, Vinson Luo.
      2nd place winner: Blue Team: David Ding, Jasper Lee, Benjamin Lin, Henry Maltby, Patrick Manalo, Leon Yao, Leon Zhang, Edward Kim.
      3rd place winner: Green Team: Bryan Brzycki, Bryan Kam, Hyun Jong Kim, Michelle Li, Raku Watari, Simon Wu, Nolan Wagener, Aritro Biswas, Robert Wu.
      4th place winner: Yellow Team: Sarah Herrmann, Patrick Lee, Christopher Miro, Roger Sheu, Kyle Sitton, Tony Wang, Patrick Xiao, Evelyn Chao.

December 9th, 2009 Top Winners of AMC 8

AMC sent the AMC 8 results last Friday. The award-winning cut-off points proved that this year's problems are harder than before. The Distinction Award (top 1%) cutoff point is 20, compared to 22 last year. The Honor Roll Award (top 5%) cutoff point is 17, compared to 19 last year. However, the Merit Award (6 grade and below) cutoff point this year is raised to 15 points rather than 14 last year. This may be a good indicator that the participants are getting younger.  For the students who took the test at Math Zoom, the awards identified thus far are as follows:

 The Distinction Award winners are: BRYAN BRZYCKI, JERRY LI, VINSON LUO, TONY ZHANG, ZIRAN WU, JEFFREY DING, RUI LI, ALBERT LU, BRANDON LUO, ANTHONY MA.
The Honor Roll Award winners are: WILLIAM FU, TIFFANY ZHANG, KEVIN CHEN, JASON HU, JULIUS LAM, JASON ZHANG, MAXWELL ZHU.
The Achievement Roll Merit Award winners are: ALBERT LU, WILLIAM FU, JASON ZHANG, MAXWELL ZHU, CHIRAG BISHT, LIA TIAN, JUSTIN WANG.

A video presenting the Math Zoom Summer Camp 2009 to give you an idea of the life at the camp.

Please watch the following testimonials from the campers at the Math Zoom Summer Camp 2009.