Winning formula: USA tops International Math Olympiad (GGT)

[GennGreymane]

Winning formula: USA tops International Math Olympiad for first time in 21 years
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...e-in-21-years/

In 1980, the United States hockey team pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, beating a powerhouse Soviet squad, 4-3, on its way to winning the gold medal. The game would go down in history as “The Miracle on Ice.”

Thirty-five years later, America pulled off another stunning upset this week.

But this victory involved integers, not ice skates, and was waged not by hulking Cold Warriors but by teens.

Team America has finally retaken the International Mathematical Olympiad crown. The victory this week was a historic comeback.

If winning a youth math competition seems less important than vanquishing the Soviets back in 1980, consider this: the last time America won the IMO was 1994. Back then, Bill Clinton was president and Ace of Base was top of the pop charts.

In the decades since, America has slowly slid down the education charts, especially when it comes to math and science.

[U.S. students lag around average on international science, math and reading test]

“It’s been 21 years,” Team USA’s head coach, Po-Shen Loh, told The Washington Post. “This is a huge deal.”

He should know. Loh himself was a contestant back in 1999, when the U.S. slumped to 10th place.

“This is a matter of national pride.” he explained. “One reason we are super excited is that for the past five years or so, we’ve been consistently second or third. It’s actually quite difficult to win. We are going up against a natural population disadvantage in the sense that China, which is the usual winner, has four times as many people.”

“Finally, to topple a country that should beat us by all expectations is a fantastic achievement for these six students,” said Loh, a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

In a sign of the tournament’s geostrategic importance, the White House gave props to Team USA on its big win in Chiang Mai.


The U.S. edged out China by four points, 185-181. South Korea took third place.

The rankings were based on the number of points scored by individual team members on six problems. Students tackle the problems three at a time in 4.5 hour sessions over two days, according to the Mathematical Association of America, the organization behind the American team.

Five U.S. team members won gold medals: Ryan Alweiss, Allen Liu, Yang Liu, Shyam Narayanan and David Stoner. A sixth member, Michael Kural, missed gold by one point, settling for silver.

Kural, a 17-year-old from Connecticut, said the competition was tougher than he expected.

“It was a definitely a lot harder than we’ve been used to,” he told the Guardian over a meal of steamed rice and spicy pork curry after the final match. “I think a lot of teams weren’t really used to that.”

Here’s an example of the problems Kural and company had to solve:

Math problem
“The questions that we do here are not anything like school questions,” Loh explained. “It’s not like going into college math. It’s like thinking harder.”

He gave a math-challenged reporter a sports analogy.

“When you look at the Olympics, everyone can understand what they are doing. It’s pretty basic stuff: run as fast as you can,” he said. “In some sense the math Olympiad is similar because the math you are using, you don’t have to have a college degree to understand. However, you do have to be creative.”

[‘When is Cheryl’s birthday?’ The math problem that stumped the Internet]

And like the Olympics, the Olympiad isn’t just about national pride, but national improvement.

“Why we are doing this for the country is that basically it plays the same role as the Olympics does in sports: to have some sort of far destination that all of our hundreds of thousands or millions of people in America can reach towards, like a pinnacle in the distance,” Loh said. “It pushes people to reach farther in mathematics.”

Loh said he hoped his students’ victory would “inspire large areas of the population to try harder in mathematics than they ever thought they could.”

He added that the tournament was far less cutthroat than the Olympics. No cheating. No mind games. Sometimes teams actually help one another.

“It’s the exact opposite of backstabbing,” Loh said. “The coaches are always the same. We are all friends. It’s very collegial. We are essentially going after the same goal, which is to drive the whole world up.

“At the end of the day, the talent flow goes in many directions,” he said. “For example, many of the top students come to the United States to go to university. So we are all the beneficiary.”

But international integer solidarity didn’t stop Team America from pulling out the Stars and Stripes on the victory stage.

“The closing ceremonies are quite moving,” he said. “You have this scene where all of the top students are being recognized and they are holding their huge flags. Some of them are wearing the flags. It’s a big deal. Some of them are very attached to their countries.”


Members of Team USA celebrate their gold medals. China doesn’t not look as thrilled with silver (Courtesy of Po-Shen Loh)
This was Loh’s second year in charge of the team, but he spent four years before that as an assistant. He admits that after five years of second or third place finishes, plus his own 10th place performance 16 years ago, it felt good to finally beat the Chinese.

“Of course there is a very friendly rivalry between us,” he said. “When China conceded defeat, their coach came over to me and we shook hands.

“Usually it’s the other way around.”

Update

Here are the names of the team members: Ryan Alweiss, Allen Liu, Yang Liu, Shyam Narayanan, and David Stoner, all of whom were awarded gold medals, and Michael Kural. More more on the team, click here. For rankings over the years, click here.

pic of the team:
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-ap...dit.jpg&w=1484

[Deleted]

Have money and have big population.

[Tradewind]

dem some solid American names right there!

[Kalis]

pic of the team:
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-ap...dit.jpg&w=1484

They're missing the fat nerd to complete the set.

[GennGreymane]

They're missing the fat nerd to complete the set.

he was playing league

[Independent voter]

Somebody needs to tell those girls they are bad at math.

[Wildtree]

A Stoner and 3 Asians pulling off a competition win.

Now, one could congratulate on the feat..... If only it would reflect the skill set of the majority..
Finding 5 exceptionally good students out of the large pool of students isn't representative to the rest, which rather sucks in international comparison.
But maybe it's a motivation and inspiration to help with a broader catchup.

[Flaks]

Too bad this doesn't change the fact that the U.S. Standards of education on average nationwide are abysmally poor in the developed world, including in math.

[Themius]

Too bad this doesn't change the fact that the U.S. Standards of education on average nationwide are abysmally poor in the developed world, including in math.

Something doesn't add up here, like the fact we have the best colleges in the world but then to also say we have the worst schools of developed nations.

perhaps the problem is looking at the tests given as the end all be all.

[haxartus]

the fact we have the best colleges in the world

You really don't. You have less than a 100 good colleges out of a pool of 3000.

[Theinquisition]

A article comes out showing that we have excelled in a international math competition, and boom....international critics of America and its education system appear...sore losers much?

[Garnier Fructis]

A article comes out showing that we have excelled in a international math competition, and boom....international critics of America and its education system appear...sore losers much?

It's a hollow victory given that we're still rather uneducated as a country.

[haxartus]

Well a group of a few students doesn't represent the whole education system.
If you stop 100 people on the street and 95% of them don't know how is the ∑ symbol is even used, then it represents the educational system.

[Wildtree]

A article comes out showing that we have excelled in a international math competition, and boom....international critics of America and its education system appear...sore losers much?

Tony........ The Harlem Globetrotters are the most artistic Basketball players on the globe.
Does that make the entirety of the basketball players in the US as artistically skilled?
By far not, most people suck and can't score a hoop when their lived would depend on it..

And that's how you need to see that event too.

[alltrueist]

You really don't. You have less than a 100 good colleges out of a pool of 3000.

And how many "good" (how are you even defining that?) colleges does your country have?

[haxartus]

And how many "good" (how are you even defining that?) colleges does your country have?

This is not relevant, even if it's 0 it doesn't say anything about colleges in the US.
If 95% of your colleges suck and the other 5% are the best in the world, then on average your colleges suck.

[Themius]

This is not relevant, even if it's 0 it doesn't say anything about colleges in the US.
If 95% of your colleges suck and the other 5% are the best in the world, then on average your colleges suck.

Where are you getting this from? Colleges in America are known for being good, and providing a much fuller experience than colleges in other countries, and for being sometimes expensive.

[Garnier Fructis]

How good or bad our colleges are is still irrelevant to us being shit at k-12 education.

[haxartus]

Where are you getting this from?

http://www.webometrics.info/en
You have 270 colleges in the top 1000. The other 2800 colleges in the US are below top 1000.
Like the "Tennessee College of Applied Technology Whiteville" which is not even in the top 20 000 colleges in the world.

[Deleted]

Something doesn't add up here, like the fact we have the best colleges in the world but then to also say we have the worst schools of developed nations.

You can have an excellent higher education system while still failing the majority of people during under-18 education.