On Oct. 1, 2021, middle and high school Olympians came to UCCS from all over Colorado: Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Douglas County, Greenwood Village, Jefferson County, Steamboat Springs and Windsor.
The Olympians were offered five problems and given four hours to solve them and present complete essay-type solutions.
First prize was awarded by the Jury of the Olympiad to Ellie Greyson, junior, Cherry Creek High School; Anthony Wang, junior, Rock Canyon High School; and Shruti Arun, 8th grader, Campus Middle School.
Each student will receive an Olympiad Gold Medal, a $500 scholarship to be used at any certified American university, a $2,000 UCCS Chancellor’s Scholarship for Olympiad’s Medalists who enroll in UCCS as new first-years, five books by Alexander Soifer including “The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of Coloring and the Colorful Life of Its Creators,” “Mathematics as Problem Solving,” “How Does One Cut a Triangle?,” “Geometric Etudes in Combinatorial Mathematics” and “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First 10 years and Further Explorations,” as well as a graphing calculator, and a one-year download of the Wolfram Research software Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition that combines the best of both Wolfram|Alpha and Mathematica into a single, unified tool.
Second prize was awarded to Srinivas Arun, sophomore, Cherry Creek High School; and Nathan Jensen, junior, Pine Creek High School.
Each of them will receive an Olympiad Silver Medal, a $2,000 UCCS Chancellor’s Scholarship for Olympiad’s Medalists who enroll in UCCS as new first-years, a fine Springer book, four books by Alexander Soifer including “Mathematics as Problem Solving,” “How Does One Cut a Triangle?,” “Geometric Etudes in Combinatorial Mathematics” and “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First 10 years and Further Explorations,” as well as a graphing calculator, and a one-year download of the Wolfram Research software Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition.
Third prize was awarded to Emily Zhang, sophomore, Cherry Creek High School and Jack Younger, sophomore, Colorado Academy.
Each of them will receive an Olympiad Bronze Medal, a $2,000 UCCS Chancellor’s Scholarship for Olympiad’s Medalists who enroll in UCCS as new first-years, a fine Springer book, four books by Alexander Soifer including “Mathematics as Problem Solving,” “How Does One Cut a Triangle?,” “Geometric Etudes in Combinatorial Mathematics” and “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First 10 years and Further Explorations,” as well as a graphing calculator, and 1 year download of the Wolfram Research software Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition.
First Honorable Mentions were awarded to the following 10 Olympians:
- Austin Zhang, 7th grade, Challenge School
- Nithya Palacherla, 6th grade, Northridge Elementary School
- Nathan George, first-year, Pine Creek
- Ari Wang, sophomore, Rampart High School
- Connor Frithsen, sophomore, Steamboat Springs High School
- Nakul Choudhary, 7th grade, Stem
- Nehal Choudhary, freshman, Stem
- Emmit Knutson, junior, Windsor Charter Academy
- Hayden Barrett, first-year, Windsor Charter Academy
- Aiden Johnson, senior, Windsor Charter Academy
Each student will receive four books by Alexander Soifer including “Mathematics as Problem Solving,” “How Does One Cut a Triangle?,” “Geometric Etudes in Combinatorial Mathematics” and “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First 10 years and Further Explorations,” as well as a one-year download of the Wolfram Research software Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition.
Second Honorable Mentions were awarded to the following 12 Olympians:
- Abigail Douglas, sophomore, Cherry Creek High School
- Tanishqa Puhan, junior, Cherry Creek High School
- Adam Mikaelian, 8th grade, Chinook Trail Middle School
- Ben Jensen, 7th grade, Chinook Trail Middle School
- Byron Sharman, junior, Coronado High School
- Alex Zhang, 7th grade, Manning Options School
- Charlotte Teuscher, sophomore, Steamboat Springs High School
- Shane Lambert, sophomore, Steamboat Springs High School
- Ivan Skaggs, first-year, Thomas MacLaren School
- Brendon Cody, senior, Windsor Charter Academy
- Lucas George, sophomore, Windsor Charter Academy
- Michael Pientka, senior, Windsor Charter Academy
Each student will receive two books by Alexander Soifer including “Mathematics as Problem Solving” and “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First 10 years and Further Explorations,” as well as a one-year download of the Wolfram Research software Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition.
A Sample Problem: 21 Primes in 2021
Those who wish to understand the spirit of the Olympiad are invited to solve some of the 2016 Olympiad’s five problems. Here is our problem 4 for your enjoyment:
Is there a sequence of 2021 consecutive positive integers that contains exactly 21 prime numbers?
A positive integer is called prime if it has exactly two distinct positive divisors, 1 and itself.
Oct. 8 Awards Presentation Ceremony
On Oct. 8, 2021, in Berger Hall on the UCCS campus, UCCS conducted award presentation ceremonies with the participation of Lynn Vidler, Dean of the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences; Kevin C. Mitchell, Executive Director, Empowerment Solidarity Network; Greg Hoffman, a long-time Olympiad’s sponsor; Karol Gates, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Colorado Springs District 11; Tacy Killingsworth, Director for Curriculum and Instruction, Academy District 20; Col. Robert Ewell, a senior member of the Olympiad Jury; and Alexander Soifer, Olympiad Chair and Professor of Mathematics and Art & Film at UCCS.
Alexander Soifer reviewed the solutions to the Olympiad’s problems and presented a lecture entitled “Merry Go Round of Mathematical Coloring: A Colorful Ride.”
The year’s prize fund and means for its delivery was donated by Colorado Springs School District 11; Air Academy School District 20; Springer Publisher; UCCS Food and Hospitality Services; Greg and Mary Hoffman; Robert and June Ewell; Chancellor Venkat Reddy of UCCS; the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at UCCS; LAS Dean’s Office; UCCS Parking and Transportation; Colorado Governor Jared Polis; Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers; and Alexander Soifer.
Approximately 20,000 students have participated throughout the 37 years of the Colorado Mathematical Olympiad. They have written roughly 97,250 essays and were awarded over $440,000 in prizes. The Olympiad is a unique joint effort of school districts, schools, industry, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and City and State governments.
Find more details and the dates of the 38th Soifer Mathematical Olympiad on the Olympiad’s website.