High School Problem Solvers Meet Math Contest Challenges
Nearly 330 students from 20 schools across Indiana and Illinois competed for individual and team class honors in this year’s Rose-Hulman High School Mathematics Competition. Carmel High School earned top school honors for the 15th straight year.
Perfect 100-point scores were recorded by five high school students that competed in this year’s Rose-Hulman High School Mathematics Competition, which attracted 330 students from 20 schools across Indiana and Illinois. Carmel captured top school honors for the 15th consecutive year, followed by the Signature School (Evansville), Fishers, and Marion.
Students had one hour to answer 20 problems covering a wide range of mathematics categories, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and number theory.
“Our goal is to expose students to mathematics, give them a chance to excel, and to see problems that are beyond what they get to see in their (high school) classrooms," said Mathematics Professor John Rickert, PhD, who helped organize this year’s competition.
Students earning top honors in each class division were Trey Whitacre of Columbia City, among seniors; Allen Qian and Jennifer Hu of Carmel, Kaitlyn Park of Park Tudor, and Jeffrey Chen of Terre Haute South, among juniors (each with perfect scores); Rithvik Varigonda of Carmel, among sophomores; and Austin Guo of Carmel, among freshmen (with a perfect score).
All results can be found here.
Award winners in the competition have gone on to be named Indiana’s Mr./Miss Math or Mr./Miss Science, named to the USA Today All-USA High School Academic Team, or appointed members of the U.S. team in the International Mathematics Olympiad. The annual competition helped Rose-Hulman’s Department of Mathematics be recognized with the American Mathematical Society’s award in 2021 for Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department.
High schools participating this year included Center Grove, Champaign Central (Illinois), Columbia City, Fishers, Hamilton Southeastern, Marion, Normal Community (Illinois), Northview, Park Tudor, Signature School, Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South, and West Vigo. There also were student guests from Vigo County’s Honey Creek Middle School.
Assisting Rickert in organizing this year’s competition were department colleagues William Butske, PhD; Klye Claassen, PhD; and Leanne Holder, PhD, and Katie Lindsey.