United Kingdom Mathematics Trust and National Museum of Mathematics Launch The Einstein Mad Hat Awards 2023. 

Worldwide Competition Seeks to Find the Most Creative Use for the Newly Discovered “Einstein Tile”.

(e-version) Download The Einstein Mad Hat Poster for your School here.
(Printed version) Order Your Free Einstein Mad Hat Poster for your School here.

Deadline for entries: 11.59pm 27 October 2023 BST.
ENTER HERE

Two leading maths organisations, the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT) in Leeds, England and the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City, announced a joint competition to celebrate the discovery of the Hat Tile, an “Einstein” or aperiodic monotile, a shape which can tile the plane but can only do so non-periodically (in a non-repeating pattern).

The famous Penrose tiles are a pair of shapes which together do the same thing, but the Hat Tile is a shape which does the job by itself. See here Aperiodic Monotile for the paper and here for an animation showing that the hat is just one of an infinite family of newly-discovered Einsteins The Hat animation.

This mathematical discovery solves what was commonly believed to be an impossible challenge in patterning. In celebration of this exciting discovery, the UK Mathematics Trust and MoMath are hosting a competition to highlight the creativity of mathematics, the Einstein Mad HAT Contest.

“UKMT is delighted to be working closely with MoMath to deliver this exciting global contest, bringing together schools, students, and individuals from across the world as we celebrate the discovery of the HAT Tile as a newly discovered Einstein.” said Dianne Flatt FCIOF
FRSA, Managing Director, UKMT. “It is great to be delivering mathematics to young people and blending this with creativity through this excellent contest.”

“The UK Mathematics Trust shares MoMath’s mission of making math fun and beautiful for all ages,” commented Cindy Lawrence, Executive Director and CEO of MoMath. “This contest gives students a wonderful option to combine math patterning and creativity, and we are thrilled to be part of this exciting worldwide contest”.

The competition is now open and will run until 11.59pm 15 October 2023 BST. You are invited to submit your renditions of the Hat and Spectre tiles. Submissions highlighting the connections between mathematics, art, design, and catering are encouraged.

All entries must be submitted via Einstein Mad HAT Competitions.

The competition will involve four broad categories:

• Useful things
• Useless things
• Physical creations
• Non-physical designs

Examples of submissions might include (but are not limited to):

• Drawings
• Fiber arts
• Baked goods
• Actual hats
• Soccer balls
• Ceramic tile

The judging panel comprises:

David Smith (HAT Author)
Yoshiaki Araki 
Robert Fathauer
Ewart Shaw
Dr Geoff Smith MBE
Dexter Senft

Note: more judges may be added nearer to the competition deadline.

There are two competitions offering circa £16,000 in total awards:

1. The Scholastic Einstein Mad Hat Competition: This competition is for students at UK secondary schools. A scholarship will be awarded to one winner who is currently enrolled inhigh school, secondary school, or equivalent. The scholarship will be applied towards tuition at an accredited college or university.
2. The Global Einstein Mad Hat Competition: This competition will award a cash prize to one adult winner. The adult winner must be 18 years of age or older and must not be enrolled in high school, secondary school, or equivalent.
   
   

Competition Detail
This competition is to allow people to explore creative uses of the hat and spectre monotiles. All entries must use a mathematically correct form of the tiling.

Entrants are encouraged to make their own rendition of the Hat Tiling. This could be a drawing, ceramic tiles, fibre arts, actual hat, baked goods, or even soccer balls.

To date we have seen a Hat Tiling design dress, technical and artistic drawings, a Hat Tiling shaped hat, as well as animations, and computer graphics. However people wish to use the Hat Tiling to make their own rendition, we will be delighted to receive all entries.

UKMT and MoMath are appreciative of all their sponsors for this exciting event. With special thanks to our Principal Sponsor, leading algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets.

Associate Sponsors include: G-Research, Jane Street, Philipp Legner, Founder of Mathigon.org, and an anonymous individual.

Full details of the Einstein Mad HAT Competitions’ Principal Sponsor and Associate Sponsors can be found below:

Principal Sponsor

 The Principal Sponsor for the Einstein Mad HAT Competition is XTX Markets, a leading algorithmic trading firm which partners with counterparties, exchanges and e-trading venues globally to provide liquidity in the Equity, FX, Fixed Income, Futures and Commodity markets. XTX has over 200 employees based in London, Paris, New York, Mumbai, Yerevan and Singapore.

Since 2017, XTX has donated over £100mn to charities and good causes, establishing it as a major donor in the UK and globally. The company’s corporate philanthropy focuses on STEM education and maximum impact giving, and also includes an employee matching programme and carbon removals. As part of this, XTX is the Founding Donor of a new £7mn ‘Maths Excellence Fund’, established to support schools in England to improve attainment and progression in maths from 11-18 years of age.

Over the past 18 months, XTX has also donated over £35mn in support of Ukraine, including humanitarian relief and academic sanctuaries programmes. As part of this, XTX has committed £10mn in direct funding for studentships, fellowships and research positions for 336 people across 45 institutions globally. XTX is also the Founding Donor of the new International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine, the country’s first maths-specific research institute.

Associate Sponsors

G-Research is Europe’s leading quantitative finance research firm. They hire the brightest minds in the world to tackle some of the biggest questions in finance. They pair this expertise with machine learning, big data, and some of the most advanced technology available to predict movements in financial markets.

Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm with offices worldwide. They hire smart, humble people who love to solve problems, build systems, and test theories. You’ll learn something new every day in their office – whether it’s connecting with a colleague to share perspectives, or participating in a talk, class, or game night. Their success is driven by their people and they never stop improving. Learn more about their educational programs here and their internships and full-time roles here.

Philipp Legner, Founder of Mathigon.org.

The United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT) is a registered charity, no. 1059125 (in England and Wales).

UKMT is a volunteer-led charity established to advance the education of children and young people in mathematics. We aim to achieve this in particular, but not exclusively, by organising and running mathematics competitions.

Below is a summary of the 14 challenges and Olympiad competitions that have taken place in the academic year September 2022 to August 2023:

Students participated: 655,423 (will have repeated students)
Schools involved: 15,902 (will have repeated schools)
Bronze certificates given: 150,094
Bronze medals given: 306
Silver certificates given: 101,761
Silver medals given: 178
Gold certificates given: 50,542
Gold medals given: 148
Free qualifying entries into Kangaroos: 30,009
Free qualifying entries into Olympiads: 3,455

In addition to the above UKMT provides mentoring, summer schools and training for the United Kingdom International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team. UKMT also enters teams into a number of overseas maths camps which take place each year. For more information visit www.ukmt.org.uk

The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) MoMath is North America’s premier cultural institution devoted to the wonders of mathematics and its many connections to the world around us. Located at 11 East 26th Street in Manhattan, MoMath is home to more than 40 interactive, engaging, and playful exhibits. The Museum is open seven days a week, from 10 am to 5 pm. Since opening in December 2012, MoMath has welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors, including more than 300,000 students. When mandated by New York City to close in March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, MoMath transformed itself into a virtual Museum with an extensive global footprint. Since that time, MoMath has provided nearly 5,500 online programs reaching more than 150,000 participants from all 50 U.S. States and from 126 other countries. For more information, visit momath.org.