CGU math students take second place at Claremont Colleges competition

Two PhD students from Claremont Graduate University’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences earned second place at a contest designed to test the skills of the best and brightest math students at the Claremont Colleges.

An Do and Di Kang were part of a three-person team that competed on Jan. 31 during the Claremont Center for Mathematical Sciences‘ inaugural Claremont Mathematics Weekend. They joined with Pitzer College student Ayoub Makroz, facing four other teams to earn points by answering 11 math problems in a limited amount of time.

“They tackled a series of challenging questions from different areas of mathematics,” said Marina Chugunova, the CGU mathematics professor who helped organize the event. “A second place finish is impressive given the strong competition they faced from students at Harvey Mudd and the other colleges.”

The Claremont Center for Mathematical Sciences organized Mathematics Weekend to connect graduate students, undergraduate students, and Claremont Colleges faculty, and to foster cross-campus relationships and kindle research partnerships between students and faculty.

“It was also a great opportunity to showcase the spectrum of math research taking place across the seven Claremont Colleges campuses,” Chugunova said.

The first day of Mathematics Weekend featured research presentations from Claremont Colleges math faculty. The student competition took place on day 2. About 80 people attended across both days.

Chugunova said the Claremont Center for Mathematical Sciences will make Claremont Mathematics Weekend an annual event. Plans are already underway to bring it back next academic year.