U.S. Team Beats 108 Countries to Win International Math Olympiad

[A U.S. team—which included two Indian Americans—won the International Math Olympiad. |Photo Source: Carnegie Mellon University]

By: India West Staff Reporter

A U.S. team, which included two Indian Americans, beat out 108 countries to win the International Math Olympiad, held July 6-16 in Hong Kong.

The six-member team comprised the best high school math students from around the U.S. The two Indian Americans on the team were Ankan Bhattacharya, who will enter his senior year at International Academy East in Troy, Michigan this fall; and Ashwin Sah, who will enter his sophomore year at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon.

Before traveling to Hong Kong, the six-person team, along with 64 of the best math students from the U.S. and around the world, met at Carnegie Mellon for the Mathematical Association of America’s Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program.

“We are trying to provide a solid infrastructure to support the extraordinary mathematical talent that we have here in the United States,” said U.S. team coach Po-Shen Loh, associate professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.

“By doing this, we hope to provide students with problem-solving and critical thinking skills that will help them in high school, college and their professional lives. It’s not about a single competition, it’s about their 20- or 30-year trajectory,” said Loh.

This is the second year in a row that the U.S. team has won the IMO. The winning U.S. team score was 214 out of a possible 252, ahead of the Republic of Korea (207) and China (204).

IMO scores are based on the number of points scored by individual team members on six problems. On each day of the two-day competition, the teams have 4.5 hours to work on three problems. Team members Liu and Yao each earned perfect test scores.

Each of the winning team members received a gold medal.

“We have been running the U.S. Olympiad training program with a focus on the long-term development of our country’s talent, and it’s great to see that reflected in the continued team success a second year in a row,” said MAA executive director Michael Pearson.

This story was originally published on India West.