# Who Wants to Be a Mathematician at the 2016 USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC

Five Washington, DC-area students and one festival attendee from Michigan played Who Wants to Be a Mathematician on Saturday, April 16 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center--part of the fourth USA Science and Engineering Festival (held every other year).

(Left ro right: Alan Yuan, St. Albans School, Julia Thompson, Clarke County High School, Naveen Raman, Richard Montgomery High School, Kyle Gatesman, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Matthew Feng, Poolesville High School, and Ajay Arora, Novi High School

Ajay, a ninth grader from Michigan, was the big winner, taking home $1,000 from the AMS and a TI-Nspire CX from Texas Instruments. Here are videos of the game and of Ajay afterwards: Below are photos and a description of the game. It was a very tight game that was decided on the final question. Ajay, Naveen, and Julia answered each of the first seven questions correctly, so they were in a three-way tie for first going into the last question. Ajay was the only one of the three to answer question eight correctly, which moved him into first place for the game and he won$1,000 and the TI-Nspire CX as a result. Kyle also answered question eight correctly (along with Matthew and Alan), so he finished in second place.

Unfortunately, Ajay did not answer the $2,000 Bonus Question correctly, so was unable to triple his cash winnings, but he still had a very profitable afternoon. Below are the prizes won by the six contestants. • TI-Nspire CX graphing caclulator from Texas Instruments and$1,000 from the AMS: Ajay Arora, Novi High School
• TI-Nspire CX graphing calculator from Texas Instruments: Kyle Gatesman, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
• Maple 2016 from Maplesoft: Julia Thompson, Clarke County High School (she and Naveen tied for third--Julia opted for the software)
• Calculus with Early Transcendentals by Anton, Bivens and Davis from John Wiley and Sons: Naveen Raman, Richard Montgomery High School (Naveen chose the calculus book)
• Mathematical Understanding of Nature: Essays on Amazing Physical Phenomena and Their Understanding by Mathematicians from the AMS: Matthew Feng, Poolesville High School
• What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, Vol. 10 from the AMS: Alan Yuan, St. Albans School

Thanks very much to our sponsors: Maplesoft, the Who Wants to Be a Mathematician Technology Sponsor; Art of Problem Solving, our Online Community Sponsor; Texas Instruments; and John Wiley and Sons. Thanks also to members of the audience who chose to be indoors on a beautiful spring day in DC and who waited patiently for the game to start, and to the teachers who encouraged their students to participate in Who Wants to Be a Mathematician.

Photos and videos by Annette Emerson and Samantha Faria, AMS Public Awareness Office. Text by Mike Breen.

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