March 8, 2011 > Bay Area schools participate at Stanford Math Tournament Bay Area schools participate at Stanford Math Tournament Story and Photo submitted by Sonia Li On Saturday, February 19, more than one hundred math students gathered to participate in the daylong Stanford Mathematics Tournament (SMT), an annual competition hosted by Stanford University Mathematical Organization (SUMO). High school students from the United States, China, and Iran took a series of tests produced by both Stanford and Rice Universities. The tournament began with a high-difficulty level Power Test, taken in teams. Following the test, individual rounds challenged the participants with topics ranging from general math to more advanced subjects. Upon completion of the individual tests, students took the Team Test. The series of examinations concluded with a finale of "Fun Rounds," in which students raced to complete another set of questions. This year the speaker was Professor of Mathematics Ravi Vakil, who lectured on the mathematics of doodling, a topic which many students found intriguing. After extensive tiebreakers in which difficult questions were presented to high-scoring participants to determine first, second, and third place winners, awards were presented. There were numerous individual winners coming from different schools, including Rahul Sridhar and Varun Mohan from Harker School who both received first place, Lewis Chen from Mission San Jose High who received second place, and Evan Chen from Irvington High School who received third place. For the Power Test, the champions came from Saratoga High School. Bergen County Academy of New Jersey and Canyon Crest Academy/Torrey Pines High School shared second place. Winners were presented medals and trophies of merit, copies of Mathematica, and various cash awards. Next year's competition is tentatively scheduled for February 18, 2012. Sonia Li is a student at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont.