I was given the opportunity to experience the Berkeley Math Tournament (BMT) which turned out to be one of the most inspiring and extraordinary experiences in my math journey so far. BMT is a UC Berkeley student-led organization that has a mission to spread the love of math and entertain students with world-applicable problems to solve. As part of my high school’s math team, this was my first BMT competition ever. There were six members in my team across 9th, 10th and 11th grades. My school had two teams at BMT, and some other schools had six to eight teams. 

On a foggy and slightly windy morning on Saturday (11/2/2024), I arrived at 8AM to the spectacular campus of UC Berkeley. I surprisingly found my way into the Dwinelle Hall area but because the competition is popular, over 1,000 students across 203 teams were also scrambling to find their teammates and schedules. After fifteen minutes of texting anxiously to multiple teammates, I united with the five other students from my school team. After our confusions about registration were resolved, we headed over to the Pauley Ballroom for the first round, the Power Round. As a proof-based team-round for ninety minutes, there was a great amount of variety in the questions for everyone’s strengths to be put to use. I was also inspired by the problem-solving strategies that varied throughout the team. 

Afterwards, I immediately went to a different location for my two, individual focus tests of algebra and geometry. I nervously walked into Room 145 of Dwinelle Hall as the fifty students inside stared at me the moment I stepped in. I sat down next to a girl who met me with friendly looks and the most relatable thoughts about the tests we were taking. Both focus tests were exciting, and I felt proud of myself after solving some of the challenging problems. During the break between the focus tests, I talked to some of the other students near me, which taught me that math competitions are not only to accurately solve all of the problems, but also to engage in meaningful conversations with new people, especially those who share common interests in math.

After happily completing both focus tests even though they started later than intended, I ran over to the restaurant where the rest of my teammates were having lunch. Once I reached the restaurant, my teammates and I talked about our strategies for the next round that we practiced for the day before. We lost track of time but rushed back to the Pauley Ballroom to make it just in the nick of time. However, there was no need to eat and speed-walk at the same time because the round started one hour later than it was supposed to! During the delay, I noticed one of the most memorable and noteworthy moments of the entire experience: together, in one room, young mathematicians similar to me shared the same love for math as I did. The Guts round, a 75-minute team round with nine sets of three problems began. My team and I quickly but thoughtfully solved the first few sets of problems as the difficulty increased faster than I expected. In the end, I was told that we did better than the math team last year which was a fulfilling statement. Overall, the eventful day was a worthy experience, and I can’t wait for the next BMT competition and many other math events to come. 

-Mihika

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I got one of the most valuable opportunities to form a math club at my middle school to encourage and motivate girls to explore STEM and participate in math competitions. To do this, I invited four female mathematicians from Stanford and UC Berkeley as guest speakers to share words of advice and life lessons from their careers and how they got interested in math being female.

The speakers who taught so much about math from a different perspective were:

Dr. Eugenia Malinnikova: a mathematics professor at Stanford University. Dr. Malinnikova went to Princeton prior to becoming a professor where she was a von Neumann fellow during 2018-2019. She also won the Clay Research Award in 2017. Dr. Malinnikova earned her Ph.D. in 1999 from St. Petersburg State University. She researches harmonic analysis, elliptic PDE, and potential theory. 

Dr. Alice Cortinovis: a tenure-track researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pisa, Italy. Dr. Cortinovis received a Ph.D. from EPFL, Switzerland. She primarily does research on numerical linear algebra.

Dr. Catherine Cannizzo: a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley. Dr. Cannizzo received a Ph.D. in 2019 from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s and master’s in mathematics from the University of Oxford. She does research in the field of geometry.

Dr. Krutika Tawri: a professor of math at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on deterministic and stochastic nonlinear Partial Differential Equations arising from fluid dynamics, geophysics, and material science. Dr. Tawri received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University.

All four amazing professors taught me the most priceless life lessons I want to share.  

Dr. Malinnikova wisely stated, “There are very many different ways to enjoy mathematics.” I learned that mathematics can be enjoyed through competitions, making origami figures, pushing oneself to solve problems for fun, etc. She also explained, “There is so much development in the world in science, technology, and mathematics because we all think differently. We need people with different minds, backgrounds, and experiences to be successful.” This quote made me wonder if we all thought/acted/experienced everything the same, what would the world be like? Certainly not the thriving societies we live in today. 

Dr. Cortinovis also taught me a valuable lesson, “If a math competition goes well, that’s great! If it doesn’t, who cares? So, participate because you have nothing to lose.” I have never forgotten her quote because it applies to everyday life, such as school, work, and sports. I learned that if someone continues trying and never gives up, good results will follow. The effort counts more than the number of questions correctly answered. 

“I actually met a lot of interesting people from math competitions. Like… I met my best friend,” Dr. Cortinovis explained. At this point, I felt that mathematics has it all: finding loved ones, sharing interests, and having lots of fun. 

Dr. Tawri talked about the gender gap in mathematics, saying, “Math is about problem-solving and logical reasoning. It sees no gender, it sees no race. And that’s why I think it’s also extremely important to encourage young female mathematicians to join the community.” It just goes to show that although gender and race gaps may be discouraging, math is for everyone. 

“Show the girls that math is not boring; it’s really fun. No matter what field you are in, you are going to end up using math in one form or the other,” Dr. Tawri explained. I learned that math may be portrayed as “tedious” or extremely frustrating but if you give it a chance, it can become one’s favorite hobby and part of life like it is for me.

“The field is really formed by the people doing it. And the more girls and gender-expansive youth doing math, the better the field becomes.” Dr. Cannizzo stated one of the most real facts is that the math field needs more diversity and the mathematicians are the ones who show the world what math can do.

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