Formula for math success gets boost

Over the past 12 years, more than 16,000 undergraduates have taken part in the contest, among whom 720 have won prizes, and many have gone on to conduct excellent mathematical research, Cheng says.

Yau says that in the years since the contest was first held, his aims for establishing it have generally been realized, at least in some universities.

"Universities tend to impart all the required basic knowledge to students in class now," he says.

Students performed well in this year's contest, and the gap between recent contestants and the best students he has ever met has narrowed, he says.

One of the prize winners, Zeng Xiangru, 20, of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, says the contest is quite different from other math competitions.

"Many of the others mostly involve written exams, but in this one, the oral quiz requires you to express your ideas through explanation and writing on the blackboard. It can reflect something that other exams cannot show, especially your expressiveness and reactions."

Guan says: "Through dealing with many mathematical scholars, we have learned about them and their research fields, something that encourages us to think about what research direction we plan to choose."

Hu Yuqi, a math major at Tsinghua, gave a talk about Polish logician and mathematician Alfred Tarski. It was one of a series of lectures organized by Qiuzhen College, Tsinghua, of which Yau is the dean.

The aim of the lectures is to make profound math more accessible to ordinary people, says Yau, who also established the lectures.

"Math culture in China leaves a lot to be desired. Many teachers and parents believe math is difficult and boring. Their attitudes may adversely influence students. I want to make students know that math is interesting and keeps evolving."

Earlier lectures in the series were given in Guizhou, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in which stories were told of Leonhard Euler (18th-century Swiss mathematician), Archimedes, Rene Descartes (17th-century French scientist) and others.

"Training a talented scholar is not a quick job," Yau says. "We are very clear that we must endeavor not only to impart math knowledge to students, but also cultivate them to understand the culture of math.

"Making our students know what the great mathematicians learned and experienced, what their opinions were, and how their research influenced math is very important. That helps us make our own discoveries."

Contact the writer at wangru1@chinadaily.com.cn