SEVENTH ANNUAL MATH CHALLENGE DAY AND CUBE FESTIVAL! Wednesday, June 2, 2010 9:00am-3:30pm For students Grade 1-10 who LOVE Math! - Guest Speaker, to be announced - Math-Centered Activities - Rubix-Cube Solving Contest - Math Competitions Grade 1-10 - Free Pizza Lunch with Distinguished Guest from Berkeley Math Circle - Awards Ceremony and Reception Proudly sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, King Christian Academy and Toppers Pizza. Call 698-7140 or email info@kingchristianacademy.com for more information or to register. For more information or a schedule of events, please see Math Challenge Day Invitation (pdf) DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS 2010 Dr. Alon Amit, Group Product Manager, Google 2009 Ivan Matic Assistant for Berkeley Math Circle (BMC) 2009 Dr. Nahid Golafshani Nahid was born in Iran. From beginning, she liked to play with numbers and look for a pattern on cars license plates. Her passion with numbers, took her to the United States where she studied mathematics and received a bachelor and a master degree in pure mathematics with the option in mathematics education. She obtained the teaching certificates from Iran and Ontario, Canada and her PhD from University of Toronto. She has taught mathematics in Iran, U.S. and Canada. She has worked with diverse group of students and teachers from different cultures and countries. She always believes that our students make us better teachers. She is currently a professor at Laurentian University and is currently working on a research study on the effect of Smartboard Technology (interactive whiteboard) on students' mathematics learning. This is an ongoing research by creating math lessons and providing them to teachers to teach in the classrooms. The study is examining the impact of the technology on students' learning and participation in mathematics classrooms. The finding of research will contribute to constructivist teaching via technology. 2008 Andrew Dudzik 2007 Igor Ganichev Mr. Ganichev was a participant for his home country of Kazakhstan in the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He earned a Silver Medal, Gold Medal and Silver Medal respectively. He is a frequent contributor of the Berkeley Math Circle and is finishing his graduate studies at Berkeley. 2006 Sam Vandervelde Mr. Vandervelde received his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in June 2004, and is currently attempting to simultaneously pursue all the things he loves to do most. (Such as coordinate this math competition, organize a math circle at Stanford, launch a program for middle school math teachers, play soccer, spend time with his boys, and cook.) His mathematical interests include algebraic number theory, L-functions, and Mahler measure. He resumed his graduate studies after a five year stint teaching mathematics at The Roxbury Latin School, a private boys school in Boston for grades seven through twelve. While Dr. Vandervelde likes to think that his students will remember him for his lucid presentation of astoundingly interesting mathematical concepts, he suspects that they will sooner recall his somewhat creative teaching techniques, which included such events as the fall bulls-eye tic-tac-toe tournament, calculator licenses, and the ever popular game of minions. Not surprisingly, Dr. Vandervelde loved taking math contests while in high school and college. He is proud of winning ARML his senior year while attending Amherst County High School, as well as being selected for the 1989 IMO team which took 5th place in West Germany later that summer. 2005 Tom Davis Tom Davis competed for Caltech in the Putnam math contest. Tom Davis received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford, completed a post-doc there in electrical engineering, and became one of the founders of Silicon Graphics. He worked as Principal Scientist until his early retirement in 1998. Since then he has been devoting much of his time to teaching young people lively mathematics and creative thinking through problem solving. His main interest is in geometry but unfortunately his main abilities lie in logic, the theory of computation, and in mathematical analysis. 2004 Zvezdelina Stankovai Director of Berkeley Math Circle (BMC)