SVCBeercats
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My favorite is the USA International Math Olympiad (IMO) team. Who has been the best coach in Pittsburgh? Chuck Noll? Nope. Second best. The best coach in Pittsburgh is Dr. Po-Shen Loh. Noll won 4 Super Bowls. Perhaps in the 70s there were 28 NFL teams to beat out. Dr. Loh's team has beaten 110 teams from the world. Dr. Loh is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to Dr, Loh becoming the USA IMO coach, the USA had not won the IMO for 20 years. Dr. Loh's teams have won the IMO 4 times out of the 5 years he has been the coach. His teams won in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and garnered a 4th place in 2017 (tough recruiting year 
). Clone this man! He should have a summer program teaching his educational techniques to high school teachers. I have encountered professors who could use healthy dose of Dr. Loh's energy and passion. There is every reason to make learning enjoyable and fun.
How hard is it to win the IMO? Consider 250,000 USA high school students compete for 6 places on the team and two alternates - no participation trophies. Now consider this is generally the case for students in 110 countries. These are 660 of the best young math minds in the world. The team must compete for two days. Each day they must attempt to solve 3 problems in 4.5 hours. There are 42 possible points. A score of 21-23 or so has won a silver medal. We are talking seriously hard math problems. Amazingly each year there are 1-4 competitors who earn a perfect score! In 2008 I stumbled across a video about British maths students and their struggles to make their IMO team. I was struck by how many had some degree of autism including Asperger syndrome. I wondered if this were the case for the USA team. It is not. But I was hooked. I hope one or more of you will find the videos below interesting. By the way there are international olympiads for physics, chemistry, etc. Several students have participated in multiple olympiads.
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Hard Problems The Road to the World's Toughest Math Contest
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Beautiful Young Minds 《美丽青年心灵》
). Clone this man! He should have a summer program teaching his educational techniques to high school teachers. I have encountered professors who could use healthy dose of Dr. Loh's energy and passion. There is every reason to make learning enjoyable and fun.How hard is it to win the IMO? Consider 250,000 USA high school students compete for 6 places on the team and two alternates - no participation trophies. Now consider this is generally the case for students in 110 countries. These are 660 of the best young math minds in the world. The team must compete for two days. Each day they must attempt to solve 3 problems in 4.5 hours. There are 42 possible points. A score of 21-23 or so has won a silver medal. We are talking seriously hard math problems. Amazingly each year there are 1-4 competitors who earn a perfect score! In 2008 I stumbled across a video about British maths students and their struggles to make their IMO team. I was struck by how many had some degree of autism including Asperger syndrome. I wondered if this were the case for the USA team. It is not. But I was hooked. I hope one or more of you will find the videos below interesting. By the way there are international olympiads for physics, chemistry, etc. Several students have participated in multiple olympiads.
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Hard Problems The Road to the World's Toughest Math Contest
-
Beautiful Young Minds 《美丽青年心灵》
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