Shippensburg Math & Computer Science Day

Shippensburg University held its annual Math & Computer Science Day on April 5, 2016. This is a day when high school students from the surrounding region come to Shippensburg University to participate in mathematics and computer science events. The events this year were a Team Computer Programming Competition, an Individual Mathematics Contest, and a Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival. 

Math & Computer Science Day by the numbers: 15 high schools, 90 high school students, 17 high school teachers, 41 SU student volunteers, 9 SU faculty volunteers, 1 Penn State Harrisburg faculty volunteer, 1 University of Pennsylvania graduate student volunteer, 3 events and over 40 challenging problems.

New this year was our partnering with the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, which is supported by the American Institute of Mathematics. Since the inaugural festival at Google in 2007, they have become increasingly popular around the United States. The first international festival was in China in 2015, and later this year a second will be hosted in New Dehli, India. The Shippensburg University Mathematics Department is proud to have hosted the first in Pennsylvania. 

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the competitive events. For the Team Computer Programming Competition there were 9 teams (25 students). Trophies were awarded to first, second, and third place. For the Individual Mathematics Contest there were 41 participants. Amazon gift cards ($75, $50, and $25) were awarded to first, second, and third place.

The organizers Drs. Lance Bryant, Sarah N. Bryant and Dudley Girard want to thank all of the high schools that participated this year along with the SU students, faculty, and staff that make the event possible. We offer a special thank you to Dr. Ben Galluzzo and Dr. Kim Presser for showcasing some of our undergraduate student research and talking with high school students about careers in mathematics during the festival.