KU students excel in math competitions

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas students have tested their mathematical prowess at local, state and national events.

KU Math Prize Competition

The 41st annual event, sponsored by the Department of Mathematics, took place in March. Open to all KU undergraduates, the written exam for each level covered six questions to be completed in three hours. Cash awards were presented to the top three winners at both levels.

The junior level was open to all undergraduates of non-senior standing and assumes a knowledge of first-year calculus. The winners of the junior level:

First place: Lauren D’Souza, a junior in mathematics and computer science from Overland Park.

Second place: Ceres Botkin, a junior in mathematics and economics from Shawnee.

Third place: Braden Troyer, a junior mathematics and French & Italian from Manhattan.

Top first-year student: Kodai Nakae, a freshman in electrical engineering and economics from Singapore.

The senior-level is open to all undergraduates and covers a range of standard topics of undergraduate math. The winner of the senior-level:

First place: Teerapat Saengsubin, a senior in mathematics from Samut Prakan, Thailand.

Second place: Matthew Hunt, a senior in mathematics from Kechi.

Third place: Kashif Khan, a senior in mathematics and chemical engineering from Topeka.

Hailong Dao, professor of mathematics, was in charge of the competition.

Kansas Collegiate Math Competition

KU undergraduate students took first and third place in the team competition at the 2024 Kansas Collegiate Math Competition, which was March 23 at Washburn University. The competition is part of the yearly meeting of the Kansas section of the Mathematical Association of America.

The competition is team-based, with students working together in groups of two or three to complete 10 problems in three hours. Teams from undergraduate institutions in Kansas took part. Cash awards were given to the top teams.

Members of KU’s first-place team were Teerapat Saengsubin; Ansuman Sharma, a sophomore in computer science from Visakhapatnam, India; and Shad Ahmed Shahul Hameed, a senior in mathematics and computer science from Kasaragod, India.

Second-place team members were Matthew Hunt; Maral Bat, a sophomore in mathematics and computer science from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and Matvey Tabakh, a junior in accounting from Overland Park.

Reuven Hodges and Yuanqi Wang, professors of mathematics, coached the team and assisted with the competition.

William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition

KU students participated along with over 4,000 other undergraduate students in the Mathematical Association of America’s William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Called one of the toughest math competitions in the world, the Putnam exam is a mathematics competition open to all regularly enrolled undergraduates in colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The competition took place in December. KU has several students who scored very well on the six-hour exam consisting of 12 problems. KU’s top three highest-scoring individuals made up the team, which was the highest-scoring team representing the state of Kansas.

KU’s students who scored well on the exam are: Liam McKinney (ranked 348), a senior in mathematics and computer science from Lawrence.  Teerapat Saengsubin (ranked 580), Ceres Botkin, Matthew Hunt, Shad Ahmed Shahul Hameed and Matvey Tabakh.

Joonha Park and Hodges, professors of mathematics, conducted training sessions for the Putnam exam.