Vienna Hosts International Math Competition for High School Students
March 16, 2016
Webster Vienna hosted an international mathematics competition March 12-13 for students between the ages of 16-18. The competition was organized by the International Schools Math Teachers Foundation (ISMTF). Webster Vienna professor and math program coordinator Ibrahim Wazir is the founder and present chair of ISMTF.
The participants included 237 competitors, who are mostly high school seniors, accompanied by 66 teachers from 42 different international schools from Europe and Asia. Upon arrival to the hotel on Friday they were all given a specially designed back-pack with ISMTF, and Webster logos, and included information about Webster University, prepared by the Admissions department. The bags were partly funded by Casio.
The weekend began with an individual event where students had to answer a set of 50 multiple choice questions. The top ten students received an award and a Casio calculator. In the afternoon, teams of three students from each school competed in groups, with the top three teams receiving award trophies.
The highlight of the weekend was the Sunday chase: 21 randomly selected teams were put together of 10-12 participants from different schools each with 2 accompanying teachers to conduct a mathematical chase throughout Vienna’s city center. All the teams had was a map of the inner city, a list of seven locations (from St. Stephan’s Cathedral to Musikverein) and two hours of time. After solving seven problems including Graph theory the whole group gathered on campus for an award ceremony to finish off the weekend.
The success of the competition is a direct result of the supportive Webster Vienna staff and students who attended and assisted with the event. See more photos in this Flickr album.