NMU hosts 9th U.P. High School Math Challenge

MARQUETTE — The 9th Annual Upper Peninsula High School Math Challenge took place over the weekend at Northern Michigan University.

Although a few teams canceled last minute because of the weather, about 100 students from Escanaba, Houghton, Ishpeming, Lake Linden-Hubbell, Munising Baptist and A.D. Johnston high schools solved math problems in three different rounds: the individual round, the team round and the relay round.

The challenge is one of the largest math contests of its kind in the U.P. The event is put on by NMU at no cost to the high schools.

Organizers say the event continues to be successful year after year because the contest is formatted more like a sporting event rather than just a math test.

“Traditionally, math doesn’t have the association of a sporting event, like football or hockey, and that’s something that I really hope that this event is designed to change. This perception of math, that it’s a very enjoyable pastime, it’s a lot of fun and it should be thought of similarly to a football or a hockey game,” said Daniel Rowe, an assistant professor of mathematics at NMU.

Rushil Kassetty from Escanaba was the winner of the individual competition, followed by Yvonne Wang and Shweta Pati, both from Houghton.

The team from Houghton took home the team title for the fourth year in a row. “Number Ninjas,” a team from Escanaba, secured second place and “Team 12” from A.D. Johnston came in at number three.