American School of Dubai retains top spot in UOWD annual maths competition ‘Mathalon'

Dubai, April 27, 2014: Over 120 students took part in the 5th annual University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) Mathalon Competition, which saw the American School of Dubai (ASD) take the top two places for the second year in a row.

Student teams from Grade 11 and 12 from UAE schools competed in a gruelling marathon to solve 22 maths problems in just 45 minutes, making it one of the toughest challenges in the history of the competition.

Repeating their 2013 success, teams from ASD took the champion and runner-up positions to take home the rolling trophy, while this year’s third place was awarded to a team from GEMS World Academy. The students impressed the judges with the speed and intelligence they displayed in solving some highly complicated maths problems.

The winning team consisted of Chanchee Jeon  and Sinwoo Jeon from ASD, while the second place partnership was that of Vinay Ramesh and Sang Yeop Jung also from ASD. The third place was claimed by Aitash Deepak and Jaemoo Ahn from GEMS World Academy. The top three teams were awarded 50%, 30% and 20% scholarships respectively for undergraduate degrees programs at UOWD.

Mathalon was founded in 2005 as a platform for encouraging students to take an interest in maths and to make the subject fun. It began as a simple intra-class contest and has since grown into a prestigious inter-school competition, attracting schools from across other Emirates, as well as Dubai.

Speaking at the annual Teacher’s Forum, which takes place alongside the Mathalon Competition, Dean of UOWD’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences Professor Mohamed Salem said, “Because the teaching of maths has traditionally been largely theoretical, it has been a challenge to stimulate an enthusiasm for the subject, with some students struggling to cope with certain concepts.

“By making mathematics fun, and moreover, relating it to real-life situations through the scenarios tested in the competition, we have found that students are more engaged and can visualise the benefit of learning the subject in their future professional development.”
Mr R Jayasankar, a maths teacher from The Indian High School, Dubai gave a talk on the importance of using technology in teaching difficult mathematical concepts through an interactive presentation using Autograph software.

Following the competition the students and teachers came together to join in a fun exercise with the Dubai Drums group, where they had the opportunity to interact with students from competitor schools in a team-building environment.

Having coached the top teams for two consecutive years, Mr Jasper S. Adviento, a maths teacher at ASD, spoke of the importance of such competitions in helping students realise their academic and professional potential.

Mr Adviento said, “Our aim at ASD is to challenge every student to be the best they can be and realise their potential in all aspects of life. We are grateful to UOWD for providing this opportunity, which supports our vision and visibly inspires our students and encourages them to thrive in an academic environment.” 

Founder of the Mathalon Competition and Instructor at UOWD, Ms Zeenath Reza Khan, said, “We at UOWD believe in a student-centred learning approach that helps our students discover the fun of learning.  One such initiative is organising healthy competitions, which are known to improve student performance. Mathalon is one such initiative that never fails to surprise us at the level of school students’ dedication, motivation, integrity and competiveness.”