UPEI math students excel in international math competition

UPEI math students Mostafa Fatehi and Jonathan Murley, both of Charlottetown, earned some of the best marks ever by UPEI math students participating in an international math competition during a competition hosted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University recently.

This success comes hot on the heels of their second-place finish at the Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences’ 31st annual Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Conference held in Fredericton recently.

 The international math competition at Virginia Tech attracted 397 students from 67 schools from across the United States and Canada. The two-and-a-half-hour competition is often used by large schools to choose their best math students for upcoming competitions.

 A third-year math and physics student, Fatehi tied for 16th place with 40 out of 70 possible points.

 “This is the best score ever posted by a UPEI student in this contest,” says Dr. Dan Ryan, chair of the UPEI Mathematics and Statistics Department. “In the words of Dr. David Horrocks, the students’ math coach, ‘It’s exciting to see UPEI up there with the likes of Princeton, Duke, and Purdue!’ In fact, of the 15 who scored higher than Mostafa, most were from either Princeton or Duke.”

 Murley, a second-year math student, tied for 87th place, says Ryan, which is an excellent result for a second-year student.

 “To put the achievements of both these students into perspective, 58% of the students who wrote this exam scored 0 out of 70 possible points!”

 Competition results can be found at www.math.vt.edu/people/plinnell/Vtregional.

 Both students plan to return to the competition next year and look forward to the opportunity to compete with some of the best math students in North America. The Mathematics & Statistics Faculty are proud of their students and congratulate them on a job very well done.