September 05, 2024
Meghan O'Toole
Enrique Treviño coaches at International Mathematical Olympiad
Professor and Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science Enrique Treviño co-coached Team Mexico for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)—the world’s premier high-school math competition—in Bath, England this summer, earning three medals and one Honorable Mention.
The annual event brings together teams of high-school-aged students from across the world who compete to solve mathematical problems. Each year, a different country hosts the competition. Seven countries participated in the first IMO, which was held in 1959 in Romania. It has gradually expanded to include over 100 countries from five continents. Each participating country can send a team of up to six students to compete.
Treviño has been involved in coaching students for math competitions since 2003, and he has coached teams from Mexico since 2015.
“It’s really nice to have students from all these countries hang out and bond over math,” Treviño shared. “The students were pretty excited to be there. This year, IMO had a lot of famous mathematicians give talks. One of the speakers was a Youtuber who posts a lot of math videos, and the students were super excited to see him.”
The students who participated benefited from access to world-famous mathematicians as well as a chance to learn more about England’s rich history with mathematics.
The Mexican teens who participated under Treviño’s mentorship were Rogelio Guerrero Reyes, Mateo Iván Latapi Acosta, Takumi Higashida Martínez, José Andrés Zamora Moncada, Emiliano Hernández Barranco, and Héctor Juan Villareal Corona. Guerrero Reyes got a gold medal, Higashida Martínez and Villareal Corona got a silver medal, Latapi Acosta and Zamora Moncada got bronze, and Hernández Barranco received an Honorable Mention.
The competition included an AI component where a computer competed against the students. Treviño explained, “The computer took three days to solve the problems, and students only had four and half hours each day to work on the problems with their team. If the AI had been included in the final results, it would have won a silver medal.”
This was Treviño’s second time coaching at the IMO and eighth time coaching at an international mathematical competition. Treviño continues to coach Team Mexico and will likely participate in more events and competitions in the future.