RE: MEDIA ADVISORY/MATH TALENT SEARCH

5/1/14

TO: Media representatives
FROM: Chris Barncard, University Communications, 608-890-0465, barncard@wisc.edu
RE: MEDIA ADVISORY/MATH TALENT SEARCH

On Friday, May 2, 26 Wisconsin high school students with a knack for math find out which one of them has won a $24,000 scholarship to the University of Wisconsin–Madison based on their performance in the 50-year-old Wisconsin Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Talent Search.

The students were invited to take an exam on April 5 after turning in the top scores on this year’s version of the talent search, a series of math problems that reward creative thinking. The talent search began in 1963 as a way to engage and encourage students in math, and for decades has identified Wisconsin kids who would become mathematicians — or find careers in finance, computer science and statistics.

Friday’s Honors Day — which will include presentations by UW–Madison math and engineering professors and a tour of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery for the students — runs from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Van Vleck Hall, 480 Lincoln Drive, and is open to media. The announcement of this year’s winner will happen during a noon awards luncheon on Van Vleck’s ninth floor.

If you wish to attend and talk to competitors, organizers and previous winners about the talent search, please contact Sharon Paulson at 608-263-3059 or paulson@math.wisc.edu.

More information and sample problems from this year’s and past talent searches are available at http://www.math.wisc.edu/talent/.
###