AMC Michigan Coordinator Report

During the 2009-2010 academic year, 8,223 Michigan students participated in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) -- 4,976 students from 67 schools in AMC8 and 3,247 students in AMC10/12. The total number of participants is about 860 less than last year.

Among the Michigan AMC winners for the 2009-2010 academic year, there are four perfect scorers for AMC 8, one top scorer for each of the four AMC high school competitions (AMC 10A, AMC 10B, AMC 12A, and AMC 12B), and six USAMO qualifiers. With an impressive performance, Allen Yuan (a 11th grader from Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills) was the USAMO top scorer and a member of the USA IMO team. The AMC 8 perfect scorers are: Dhruv Medarametla (a 6th grader from ICAE, Troy), Raj Raina (Novi Middle School, Novi), Apurva Shrivastava (Novi Middle School, Novi), and Zhou Qun (Alex) Song (a 7th grader from Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills). The top scorers for the four AMC high school competitions are: Hirsh Jain (Bert Okma Campus/International Academy, Bloomfield Hills), Philip Bonneville (Lightkeepers Homeschool, Shelby Township), Allen Yuan, and Neil Gurram (Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills).

In 2010, 130 Michigan students qualified for the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination). Among them, seven qualified into Junior USAMO and six qualified for the USAMO (United States of America Mathematics Olympiad). The USAMO qualifiers are: Neil Gurram, Robin He (Huron High School, Ann Arbor), Mason Liang (a 11th grade from Troy High School, Troy), David Lu (a 10th grade from Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills), Kevin Wu (Cranbrook Kingswood School, Bloomfield Hills), and Allen Yuan. All three Michigan AMC senior winners, Neil Gurram, Robin He, and Kevin Wu, joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Two teams from Detroit Country Day School (Beverly Hills) are the top two AMC team winners of Michigan this year. Other schools on the top five are: Huron High School (Ann Arbor), ICAE (Indus Center for Academic Excellence, Troy), and Troy High School (Troy).

There are four 2009 middle school Edith May Sliffe Award winners in Region 4 (Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio). Three of them are Michigan teachers: Mark Martin (Boulan Park Middle School, Troy), Melissa Rehbine (Smith Middle School, Troy), and Jennifer Slade (Boyd Larson Middle School, Troy).

Following our tradition of recognizing the achievements of the AMC winners, their teachers, and their parents, two celebrations were planned: the Awards Ceremony and the reception with the Governor. The Awards Ceremony was held on September 10th at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Oakland University, with Professor Michael Merscher (Lawrence Technology University) presenting a lecture on "Continued Fractions". Professor Merscher is a past chair of the Exam Committee for the Michigan Mathematics Prize Competition, and has been for many years the author of the LTU Annual High School Mathematics Competition. Professor Merscher was named LTU's Faculty Person of the Year in 2003, and was awarded the Mathematical Association of America Distinguished Teaching Award in 2010. Professor Merscher led the students to visit some very interesting patterns emerge when a real number is written in terms of a continuing pattern of fractions. With the help of the current Education Policy Advisor of the Governor, Ms. Niya Hardin, we got an appointment with the Governor on September 2, 2010. The governor welcomed and commended the winners and their parents graciously in the Romney Building.

These AMC celebration events are funded by the AMC, sponsored by the Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Oakland University, American Mathematical Society, Wolfram Research, and the Art of Problem Solving Foundation. Also we distributed awards to the winning teachers for the third year sponsored by one of our sponsors.

Please find the entire list of Michigan AMC winners in the AMC Awards booklet. This website will be moved to its permanent location at the Michigan Section MAA AMC Coordinator site soon.

Special thanks go to Dr. Gu (FangMing) of General Motors who has been our photographer for many years.