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We've got the numbers: UNSW Mathematics Competition
By Dan Gaffney
June 25, 2008

Six hundred students from 26 schools across NSW and the ACT will today sit the UNSW Schools Mathematics Competition. The three-hour exam poses six problems assessing knowledge from areas of secondary school mathematics, including geometry, number theory, algebra, combinatorics and calculus.

The competition's coordinator, UNSW Associate Professor Bruce Henry says markers will be looking for creative, innovative mathematical thinking in addition to correct answers. "The competition is designed to assess mathematical insight and ingenuity rather than efficiency in tackling routine examples," Dr Henry says. "Students who make it half way through each of the prescribed problems will be doing very well."

The competition aims to encourage the study of higher-level mathematics by the next generation of university students and graduates. Mathematics is key to a host of careers underpinning economic wealth, including finance, engineering, information technology, insurance, and climate science.

In 2007, the Federal Government increased funding from roughly $4,000 to $7,000 per maths student, an increase of about 75 per cent. The proportion of Australian school-leavers taking advanced maths fell from 14 per cent in 1995 to 10.4 per cent in 2006, according to Australian Mathematics Sciences Institute figures.

The UNSW Mathematics Competition is an open-book exam. Students are allowed to bring books and materials, but not computers with Internet connections, into the examination. The 2008 competition is being strongly contested by several high-performing schools, including James Ruse Agricultural High School (126 students), Sydney Grammar School (90), Sydney Boys High School (40) and Pymble Ladies' College (39).

The competition has served as one of the selectors for the Australian team in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). Five prize-winners from last year's UNSW Schools Mathematics Competition - Paul Cheung, Giles Gardam, Irene Lo, Max Menzies and Sampson Wong - are members of the six-person team chosen to represent Australia at the International Mathematical Olympiad. The 49th IMO will be held in Madrid, Spain from 10-22 July 2008. http://www.imo-2008.es/

Australian mathematician, Terence Tao, participated in IMO in 1986, 1987 and 1988, winning bronze, silver and gold medals respectively. The winner of the 2006 Fields Prize - the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize - he won a gold medal at the age of thirteen in IMO 1988, becoming the youngest person to receive a gold medal.

Now 33, Dr Tao was during his early years mentored by Professor Garth Gaudry, a former head of mathematics at UNSW. Following appointments at Princeton and then UCLA, Dr Tao has worked on two occasions at UNSW. In 1999 he spent six months here as a Visiting Fellow and returned in 2000 as a Visiting Professor, publishing papers with staff and former staff of the University's School of Mathematics.

Now in its 47^th year, the UNSW Schools Mathematics Competition has been run annually since 1962. It is run in two divisions: Junior, including students up to 17 years of age up to and including Year 10, and Senior, including students up to age 19, including students from years 11 and 12.

For those inclined, test your mathematical wits on this problem from the Junior Division of the 2007 Competition. "At the inaugural meeting of a newly formed society, the following fact is observed. If A, B and C are any three members, and if A and B know each other and B and C know each other, then C knows no member other than B. Show that the members can be separated into two rooms so that no two people in the same room know each other."

UNSW School of Mathematics homepage: http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/homepage.html

Media contact, Dan Gaffney 0411 156 015, Dr Bruce Henry, 02-9385 7044.