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School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

AMC @ USM

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2016 AMC A in Cochran Ballroom

For several years, the University of Southern Mississippi has hosted high schools for the MAA's annual American Mathematics Competition. Since the beginning of our association with this national event, we have added several activities of interest:

  • We start with the competition itself (of course). The AMC is a multiple choice test where students have to solve problems of increasing difficulty, which rely only on high school mathematics. You can find previous years' questions and solutions here.
  • After the test, students enjoy lunch while listening to a Science Café talk. You can find a list of previous years' talks below.
  • Finally, schools may opt for tours of the university campus. Facilities that have welcomed students including the university's innovation and commercialization park, known as the Garden; the School of Polymer Science; and the Department of Chemistry.
  • Every year's event also includes a T-shirt design contest. You can find a list of previous designs (and the designers) below.
Over 300 students registered for the 2015 competition. Nearly 400 attended the 2016 competitions!
We generally mail invitation letters to area schools in early fall. If you are interested in participating, but we somehow failed to contact you, please contact John%20Perry. Homeschoolers welcome: we organize all “independent” students as a separate school!

Note: You need not visit USM to participate in the American Mathematics Competition! We provide this event as a science-related field trip, but if circumstances preclude your participation in our event, you can register with the MAA directly.

Starting from 2016, USM offers the American Mathematics Competition on both national days. In 2018, that will be
February 7th
February 13th

You can register by clicking on this sentence.
Applications will be sent out by mid-September, and online registration will open then, too.
If you are interested, but don't hear from us, feel free to contact%20us!

Resources to prepare for the competition

Contest winners

We offer prizes to the top three students in each test, the top student from each school, and the school with the winning T-shirt design.

Year Test 1st 2nd 3rd T-shirt
2018 12A

Peter Liang (Oak Grove) (qualified for AIME)

Andrew Lott (Homeschool) Wallace Herrin (Pearl River Central) Picayune Memorial
12B Andrew Lott (Homeschool) Nicholas Gallardo (Sacred Heart) and Austin Lam (Long Beach) (tie)
10A Max Zhang (Oak Grove) Autsin Lam (Long Beach) Guled Liban (Picayune Memorial)
10B Gregory Li (Spanish Fort) Isha Brahmbhatt (Ardsley, New York) Priya Ray (Jackson Academy)
2017 12A Nicholas Gallardo (Sacred Heart) Emily Wright (Harrison Central) Alexis Benoit (Harrison Central) Mendenhall
12B Emily Zhang (Madison) (qualified for AIME) Allen Huang (Oak Grove) (qualified for AIME) Alexis Lanier (Pearl River Central)
10A Gregory Li (Spanish Fort) (qualified for AIME) Jeremy Wright (Harrison Central) Luke Sauls (Harrison Central)
10B Peter Liang (Oak Grove) (qualified for AIME) Michael Zhang (Madison) Juwon Kim (St. Stanislaus)
2016 12 Emily Zhang (Madison)
(qualified for USAMO) 
Allen Huang (Oak Grove) Michael Zhang (Madison) Tylertown
10 Nicholas Gallardo (Sacred Heart) Peter Liang (Oak Grove) William Meynardie (Biloxi High School, tie)
Emily Wright (Harrison Central, tie)
2015  12 Coleman Sisson (Oak Grove) Nicholas Sciortino (Oak Grove) Samer Buti (Oak Grove) NE Jones
10 Emily Zhang (Madison) Michael Zhang (Madison) Allen Huang (Oak Grove)
2014  12 Xianglong Ni (Oak Grove)
(qualified for USAMO) 
Tanjiao Guo (Oak Grove) Brandon Butler (Hancock) NE Jones
10 Allen Huang (Oak Grove) Matthew Gallardo (Sacred Heart)  Jackson Dale (Stringer)

Previous speakers

Table includes links to speakers' webpages & abstracts from the original Science Café presentation at the USM Library.

 Year Speaker  Title 
2018 Mathematics students and faculty What is mathematical research?
2017 Dr. Wonryull Koh (Computer Science) Coding to learn how we encode
2017 Dr. Bernd Schröder (Mathematics) What's Calculus Good for Anyway?
2016 Dr. Mac Alford (Biological Sciences) Flores Man: the Hobbit People of Indonesia
2016 Dr. Song Guo (Chemistry and Biochemistry) Nanoscience for a better future
2015 Dr. Scott Milroy (Marine Sciences)  Life on Mars
2014 Dr. David Echevarria (Psychology) Musical Minds

Winning T-shirt designs

2018
 snail with insπre
insπre
2017
2017 T-shirt design

I Love Math
(Mendenhall) 

2016 2015 2014
 2016 T-shirt design  2015 T-shirt design 2014 T-shirt design
Smarter than the average bear
(Tylertown)

No jerks
(NE Jones)

I saw the sine and it opened up my mind
(NE Jones)

Photos

Tylertown Team with Tshirt

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