Students win statewide math competition

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas undergraduate students took first and third place in the team competition at the 10th Kansas Collegiate Math Competition, which was March 28 at Fort Scott Community College.  The competition is part of the yearly meeting of the Kansas section of the Mathematical Association of America.

This year’s competition was team-based, with students working together in groups of two or three to complete 10 problems in three hours. Eleven teams from seven undergraduate institutions in Kansas took part. Cash awards will be presented to KU’s team members at the mathematics department’s honors banquet Tuesday, April 21.

First-place team members were Grace Garrison, a senior in mathematics from Shawnee; Daniel Knight, a senior in mathematics from Lawrence, and Cliff Oswald, a senior in engineering physics and aerospace systems from Olathe.

Third-place team members were Bridget Davis, a senior in computer science and mathematics from Olathe; Yujie Deng, a senior in computer science and mathematics from Wuhan, China, and Andrei Elliott, a senior in computer science and mathematics from Lawrence.

Mathew Johnson, assistant professor of mathematics, was the KU coach and co-organized with Jeremy Wade, assistant professor of mathematics at Pittsburg State University, the intercollegiate competition portion of the program.