A total of 101 Michigan high school students, from 44 different schools, were honored for their achievement on the 47th Annual Michigan Mathematics Prize Competition at the Awards Day program held on Saturday, February 28 at Delta College. This was the second year of the three-year term of director David Redman (Delta College).
George Andrews (Pennsylvania State University) presented “Partitions, Compositions, and Leprechauns” and John Conway (Princeton University) presented “The Mysterious Arithmetic of Lexicographic Codes”.
The first-place Gold Award winner and Ford Motor Company Scholar was Colin Clarke (Cranbrook Kingswood School). The second-place Gold Award went to Kevin Dilks (Saline High School). The third-place Gold Award went to Jeffrey Madsen (Groves High School). Silver Award winners at the first level: John Zhou (Detroit Country Day), John Hawksley (Grosse Pointe North High School), and Deskin Miller (Petoskey High School); at the second level: Alex Xu (Cranbrook Kingswood School) and Khai Nguyen (Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy); and at the third level: Samuel Bhagwat (Livonia Math/Science/Computer Program), Richard Turner (Petoskey High School), and Steven LaForest (St. Joseph High School). In addition 40 Bronze Awards were given, and 50 students received Honorable Mention.
The top 51 students received over $33,500 in scholarships in amounts ranging from $500 to $2,600. Thanks go to the corporate and other donors to the MMPC scholarship fund. The Honorable Mention winners received copies of books by the speakers at the Awards Day program: Number Theory, (Dover Publications) or Winning Ways For Your Mathematical Plays (A K Peters, Ltd.). We would like to thank the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics as well as the publishers Dover Publications and A K Peters for their generous donations that covered a portion of the cost of these books.
Part I of the MMPC is a 40-question multiple choice test, which this year was administered on October 8. The top 1,059 scorers were invited to take Part II on December 3. There were 1,013 Part II participants.
The official Web site of the competition (http://www.delta.edu/math/mmpc) contains all information about the program including scheduling, registration materials, and previous exams with solutions. Part I of the competition is given in the Fall of each year. each year.
The Director Says “Thank You!”
You might know some of the people behind the scenes of the competition, but we would still like to bring them to your attention and formally thank them. We apologize in advance if we do not mention all of the significant contributions to the competition.
The examination committee works diligently behind the scenes preparing Part I and Part II: Ed Aboufadel (chair, GVSU), Eddie Cheng (OU), John Clifford (UM-Dearborn), and Patrick Pan (SVSU). They patiently work with the director and the reports of the various reviewers who in turn deserve a great deal of thanks, though they are too numerous to mention here. The examination committee also provides the director with a valuable sounding board and advisory group.
The 59 volunteers from 21 institutions around the state who attended Grading Day did an wonderful job. They are listed on the MMPC web site. Next year Grading Day will be in the Bahamas!
The MMPC supervisors at the participating schools are essential, collecting information and organizing participants, keeping timely and frequent contact with the director. If you know a supervisor at a participating school, thank him or her, and if you have any contacts in your local high schools, encourage them to consider participating if they do not already do so.
My colleagues at Delta College who tirelessly counted, stacked, sorted, collated, packed, addressed, loaded, unloaded, advised, innovated, proofread, graded, and regraded deserve a big “thank you!”, though they are too numerous to mention here. The office staff led by Linda Nadolski deserves many thanks for their logistical support. The administration of Delta College has also contributed much practical support.
David Redman, Delta College
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