Photo L to R: Kiran Kedlaya (OMEGA Board Member), Mary Wimbury (UKMT Trustee), Ravi Vakil (Canadian-American mathematician and a Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University), Paul Zeitz (OMEGA President and Board Member), Kit Reagan (UKMT Director of Mathematical Programmes)

By Mary Wimbury UKMT trustee

At the end of May, Kit Reagan, UKMT’s Director of Mathematical Programmes, and I attended the inaugural American Masters of Mathematics. It was held in Denver, Colorado, known as the Mile High City due to being a mile above sea level on the edge of the Rocky Mountains. There is actually an engraving on the 15th step of the impressive State Capitol building denoting the mile-high point; however, different calculations have identified different steps between the 13th and 18th. I’m sure there is a maths challenge problem in there somewhere!

The American Masters was organised by OMEGA, the Organisation for Mathematical Engagement & Growth in America, and aimed to provide an Olympiad-style in-person competition for the US as part of a larger event promoting mathematical enjoyment.

Registration was on the Friday evening of the Memorial Day weekend holiday, and the contest itself was four and a half hours on Saturday, with five Olympiad-style questions for students to solve after they had been through security screening to ensure the integrity of the contest.

During this time, there was a session for parents discussing how to keep mathematically gifted young people engaged, what activities they might take part in, and what careers they might go on to pursue. This was chaired by the Art of Problem Solving’s Richard Rusczyk. We were introduced during this session as representatives of the UK’s successful mathematical enrichment organisation and described UKMT’s offer. We then received follow-up questions from families about our work in the UK and about the advantages and disadvantages of attending a UK university.

The weekend continued with maths-related activities and talks, and on Sunday students were offered reviews with members of the marking team. It all culminated in an awards ceremony on Monday morning before participants travelled home.

My personal favourite was a talk by Melanie Matchett Wood – the first woman to qualify for the US Olympiad team and now a professor at Harvard – on how and whether prime numbers could be factorised in the real number system.

Denver had been identified by the organiser as not offering too much of an advantage to those travelling from either the East Coast or West Coast in terms of time zones – not something we have to take into consideration in the UK! It was a great place to visit: a compact city centre with a pedestrianised main street, while also allowing for easy trips into the mountains, to the fabulous Red Rocks stadium, and to preserved western towns dating from the Gold Rush.