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UW CSE students clean up in Putnam Competition

mritktwjThe Putnam Mathematical Competition, offered each year by the Mathematical Association of America, began in 1938, and is open to undergraduate students in the United States and Canada.  The six-hour test is administered on the first Saturday in December.  Roughly 4,000 students typically participate.

In this year’s competition, UW CSE junior Will Johnson finished sixth – an extraordinary performance.   (In a typical year, more than half of the competitors earn a grand total of zero points.  Will scored 99 – the top score of any student at a public university.)

Two other University of Washington students finished in the top 500, including UW CSE freshman Keyun Tong.

Each institution also selects three students to compete as a team.  The UW team, which included UW CSE junior Igor Tolkov as well as Johnson, finished 15th out of 405 teams.

UW CSE senior Michael Rutherford also competed.

Great coaching makes a big difference; UW Putnam participants were coached by Mathematics professors Ioana Dumitriu and Julia Pevtsova.

See a University Week article here.