International Math Olympiad 2014 results are in! (India fails again)

[somsak]

You can tell by their names roughly that most (at least 60%) if not 100% are natives Chinese.

Yijia Liu
Sheldon Kieren Tan
Siah Yong Tan
Yan Hao Ling
Shan Hong Dylan Toh
Kewei David Lin

The English transliteration of Chinese character in Singapore for locals are mostly based on our own dialect. The PRC mostly use Hanyu pinyin.

So the Tan (陈), Ling （林）, Toh （杜）are definitely native. The Liu and Lin could be newly imported PRC. The Lin could be a Singaporeans because newly imported high school PRC seldom have a Christian name. The Liu have higher chance of being a PRC.

I plan to send my kids to Singapore for education. Which Junior High School/ High School is good at Math? My kids are studying at Singapore curriculum School here in Bangkok.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

India does not have special grooming programmes for such international events , most kids in senior high school are busy preparing for entrance exams for top engineering and medical colleges which have a specific course and syllabus , doing well in IMO would get you laurels in India but not admission into a top college , hence hardly any student prepares specifically for such events and one cannot think of getting a top 10 rank without specifically preparing for IMO.

If you're looking for some real path-breaking work in the field of mathematics then just yesterday i read a news about an Indian mathematician Nikhil Srivastava winning 2014 Geroge Polya Prize for finding a solution to Kadison Singer conjecture .

1971 Ronald L. Graham, Klaus Leeb, B. L. Rothschild, A. W. Hales, and R. I. Jewett
1975 Richard P. Stanley, Endre Szemerédi, and Richard M. Wilson
1979 László Lovász
1983 Anders Björner and Paul Seymour
1987 Andrew Yao
1992 Gil Kalai and Saharon Shelah
1994 Gregory Chudnovsky and Harry Kesten
1996 Jeff Kahn and David Reimer
1998 Percy Deift, Xin Zhou, and Peter Sarnak
2000 Noga Alon
2002 Craig Tracy and Harold Widom
2004 Neil Robertson and Paul Seymour
2006 Gregory F. Lawler, Oded Schramm, Wendelin Werner
2008 Van H. Vu
2010 Emmanuel Candès and Terence Tao
2012 Vojtěch Rödl and Mathias Schacht
2014 Adam Marcus, Daniel Spielman and Nikhil Srivastava

The George Pólya Prize has a total of 3 Chinese winner but just one Indian got it as late as this year. More remarkable is Terrence Tao, a Chinese, who is most widely recognize as the greatest living mathematician today, not only win this prize but won almost every single important mathematical prize.

Right now, he is solving Navier Stokes, a fluid mechanics problem (in conjunction with many many other important and seminal problems) which, with a stroke of luck may bring him a Nobel Prize as he has in reality, crossed into physics domain.

Salem Prize (2000)
Bôcher Memorial Prize (2002)
Clay Research Award (2003)
Australian Mathematical Society Medal (2005)
Ostrowski Prize (2005)
SASTRA Ramanujan Prize (2006)
Levi L.Conant Prize (2005)
Fields Medal (2006)
MacArthur Award (2006)
Fellow of the Royal Society (2007)
Alan T. Waterman Award (2008)
Onsager Medal (2008)
King Faisal International Prize (2010)
Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (2010)
Polya Prize (2010)
Crafoord Prize (2012)
Simons Foundation Award (2012)
Joseph I. Lieberman Award (2013)
Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2014)

 

[Lux de Veritas]

I plan to send my kids to Singapore for education. Which Junior High School/ High School is good at Math? My kids are studying at Singapore curriculum School here in Bangkok.

The elites high schools are

The Raffles Family

1) Raffles Institution (all boys)
2) Raffles Girls (all girls)

The Chinese high family
3) Hwa Chong Institution (all boys)
4) Nanyang Girls (all girls)

The above 4 schools admission is very very much base on academic results. There are a lot of rich kids, but they go in by merit, more than anything else.

The first 2 are more English and the 3rd and 4th are more Chinese. The Raffles schools is slightly better mainly because of some suppression of Chines background people in Singapore. The Rafflesians elites are more powerful in Singapore today. So they naturally attract slightly better calibre of students and they are more prestigious. All the four schools above have their senior high schools.

Other than that there is
5) Anglo Chinese High (ACS) (all boys)
6) NUS high school

ACS is famous for having a lot rich people. It seems that rich kids can get into this school via donations. ACS has a lot of powerful alumni, reason is simple, they take in rich dandy.

NUS high school is a prep school for NUS, national university of Singapore. Students can choose to focus more on Maths, Science or engineering.

The elite senior high are

1) Raffles JC (for the Rafflesian while they also take in some students from other schools)
2) Hwa Chong Institution (for the Chinese high family while they also take in some students from other schools)

3) National JC
4) Victoria JC
5) Temasek JC

The Raffles, Hwa Chong Institution are good schools which will give your kids not only an academically competitive environment (maybe too competitive), but also a network of rich and power kids from elite family. The ACS are very much less excellent academically but the family background of the kids are probably even much more elitist.

 

[LURKER]

1971 Ronald L. Graham, Klaus Leeb, B. L. Rothschild, A. W. Hales, and R. I. Jewett
1975 Richard P. Stanley, Endre Szemerédi, and Richard M. Wilson
1979 László Lovász
1983 Anders Björner and Paul Seymour
1987 Andrew Yao
1992 Gil Kalai and Saharon Shelah
1994 Gregory Chudnovsky and Harry Kesten
1996 Jeff Kahn and David Reimer
1998 Percy Deift, Xin Zhou, and Peter Sarnak
2000 Noga Alon
2002 Craig Tracy and Harold Widom
2004 Neil Robertson and Paul Seymour
2006 Gregory F. Lawler, Oded Schramm, Wendelin Werner
2008 Van H. Vu
2010 Emmanuel Candès and Terence Tao
2012 Vojtěch Rödl and Mathias Schacht
2014 Adam Marcus, Daniel Spielman and Nikhil Srivastava

The George Pólya Prize has a total of 3 Chinese winner but just one Indian got it as late as this year. More remarkable is Terrence Tao, a Chinese, who is most widely recognize as the greatest living mathematician today, not only win this prize but won almost every single important mathematical prize.

Right now, he is solving Navier Stokes, a fluid mechanics problem (in conjunction with many many other important and seminal problems) which, with a stroke of luck may bring him a Nobel Prize as he has in reality, crossed into physics domain.

Salem Prize (2000)
Bôcher Memorial Prize (2002)
Clay Research Award (2003)
Australian Mathematical Society Medal (2005)
Ostrowski Prize (2005)
Levi L.Conant Prize (2005)
SASTRA Ramanujan Prize (2006)
Fields Medal (2006)
MacArthur Award (2006)
Fellow of the Royal Society (2007)
Alan T. Waterman Award (2008)
Onsager Medal (2008)
King Faisal International Prize (2010)
Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (2010)
Polya Prize (2010)
Crafoord Prize (2012)
Simons Foundation Award (2012)
Joseph I. Lieberman Award (2013)
Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2014)

If you want me to post some Indian mathematicians who have won international awards in mathematics then the list is very long perhaps you can take the pains of googling it to find it yourself. Like i said winning IMO is a different ball game altogether and needs special training and preparation, the environment for which is not very conducive in India .

 

[Lux de Veritas]

If you want me to post some Indian mathematicians who have won international awards in mathematics then the list is very long perhaps you can take the pains of googling it to find it yourself. Like i said winning IMO is a different ball game altogether and needs special training and preparation, the environment for which is not very conducive in India .

Take the most important one, the field medal. NOT a single Indian win field medal while there are already 2 Chinese field medalist. Among them Terrence Tao is widely believe to be the world numero uno living mathematican.

 

[LURKER]

Take the most important one, the field medal. NOT a single Indian win field medal while there are already 2 Chinese field medalist. Among them Terrence Tao is widely believe to be the world numero uno living mathematican.

No doubt Field medal is considered the most prestigious award in mathematics but it comes with a caveat of age limit upto 40 years and many brilliant mathematicians have been left out on getting the award because of age criteria. There many other important awards in the field of mathematics and this single award cannot be the sole criteria to judge the Indian mathematicians. You must have heard of the great Indian mathematician Ramanujan after whom there's the prestigious award SASTRA Ramanujan Prize which you mentioned above. There are some awards in mathematics which no Indian or Chinese have won , some which Chinese have won but no Indian has and others which Indians have won but no Chinese.

 

[ephone]

Yijia Liu
Yan Hao Ling
Kewei Lin
are standard mainland Chinese (after 1949) spelling.

You can tell by their names roughly that most (at least 60%) if not 100% are natives Chinese.

Yijia Liu
Sheldon Kieren Tan
Siah Yong Tan
Yan Hao Ling
Shan Hong Dylan Toh
Kewei David Lin

The English transliteration of Chinese character in Singapore for locals are mostly based on our own dialect. The PRC mostly use Hanyu pinyin.

So the Tan (陈), Ling （林）, Toh （杜）are definitely native. The Liu and Lin could be newly imported PRC. The Lin could be a Singaporeans because newly imported high school PRC seldom have a Christian name. The Liu have higher chance of being a PRC.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Yijia Liu
Yan Hao Ling
Kewei Lin
are standard mainland Chinese (after 1949) spelling.

Ling not = 令 or 凌
Ling = 林

Tan not = 谭
Tan = 陈

Also Singaporean Chinese tends to spell our name in 3 piece while occassionally we spell our name in 2, ie Yan Hao Ling, or Lee Kuan Yew. The Liu Yijia who spell it in 2 piece appears mainland.

Also this Kewei Lin David, appears to be active locally not just in Mathematics but also taking piano exams.

Josephine Koh Music Studio

Unless he is a rich 2nd generation PRC (not very likely), he is unlikely to be a PRC. Reason being you need $ and piano to take part in piano activity. The PRC scholar staying in hostel do not have that sort of luxury -- monies and piano.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Tan = 陈

Yeah that's how they Romanize my surname in various parts of SE Asia, due to the prevalence of the Hokkien dialect there.

In HK I write it as "Chan". Though it is more common across the world to write "Chen" based on Mandarin Romanization.

 

[kadamba-warrior]

It is a shame on a big population that we have and still don't bag a better rank in truly international competitions.

Why? It is the same reason why we don't get medals in Olympics! Like somebody already explained, such competitions require a lot more investment by students, parents and the government itself. The size of the country or population doesn't matter as long as you can find only a handful of students and invest in them.

Almost 3/4 of the population lives in village who hardly get any education (let alone quality education) and even if there were to be any Maths talent, almost always they will not be identified or groomed.

It also boils down to how much your society values it. If there were to be a mindset change in India which idolizes Maths Olympiad winners or even Olympic sportsmen just like they do with Cricketers or film stars, I guarantee you, India will be among the top nations.

Not because Indians are stupid or something! We have proven it too many times.

 

[kadamba-warrior]

You don't need a lot of money for success at IMO. Most of Serbian team members are from one school:

Математичка гимназија - школа од посебног националног интереса

And that is not a big school, but they have a lot of talented kids, and they work hard with them. And it's not just math, they are excellent at many other things, as you can see on the link above.

Even in India there are some very small schools in rural places from where the students regularly make it to top Indian Institutions like IIT/IIM and other coveted Civil services. Google "Super 30" for yourself. It doesn't mean that students everywhere else (other than those in "Super 30") are stupid!

The difference is in the grooming that the students get in those schools. Sometimes it is the private individuals who do all the grooming -- even without any Government assistance.

 

[wolfschanzze]

Never heard of this Maths Oympiad before in India nor do any of my friends know it, so basically most average indians will never prepare for such things which they never heard of, they would rather prepare for their entrance exams.

 

[INDIC]

I am surprised why still none of those high IQ creatures brought PISA test in the discussion.

 

[ephone]

I do know some mainland Chinese here in US also separate their first name in two parts if it consists of two Chinese letters.

Yan Hao or YanHao is pretty much mainland Chinese spelling.

I only refer this from the name only. I have no idea what they really are.

Yan Hao Ling can be quite a standard mainland Chinese spelling simply based on the names only. (e.g. 令彦浩）

BTW, simply from Tan, we have no idea which last name we refer. We only know more when we see first name.

For example, Siah Yong as first name, I know for sure it is not standard mainland Chinese spelling.

However, if the first name is spelling as Liang, or as Xingwei, I pretty much know it is mainland Chinese spelling.

Ling not = 令 or 凌
Ling = 林

Tan not = 谭
Tan = 陈

Also Singaporean Chinese tends to spell our name in 3 piece while occassionally we spell our name in 2, ie Yan Hao Ling, or Lee Kuan Yew. The Liu Yijia who spell it in 2 piece appears mainland.

Also this Kewei Lin David, appears to be active locally not just in Mathematics but also taking piano exams.

Josephine Koh Music Studio

Unless he is a rich 2nd generation PRC (not very likely), he is unlikely to be a PRC. Reason being you need $ and piano to take part in piano activity. The PRC scholar staying in hostel do not have that sort of luxury -- monies and piano.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

I do know some mainland Chinese here in US also separate their first name in two parts if it consists of two Chinese letters.

Yan Hao or YanHao is pretty much mainland Chinese spelling.

I only refer this from the name only. I have no idea what they really are.

Yan Hao Ling can be quite a standard mainland Chinese spelling simply based on the names only.

It can be. But if you google this guy a bit more, you find his real chinese name.

Ling Yan Hao 林彦豪.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/files/2013/08/Annex-C.pdf

This is a typical native Singapore.

Ling = 林 is Singaporean

Singaporean Chinese identity is base on Hokkien and Cantonese mainly, unfortunately, fuxking Kuan Yew tries very hard to make us banana.

Being a Singaporean Hokkien/Taiwanese, I am a sympathetic to "Taiwanese race". I fully support that enshrining of "Taiwanese language" in Taiwan.