30+ Schools from India and overseas participate in ‘Infinity 2020 – The Ultimate Math Championship’ organized by Aditya Birla World Academy

Mumbai: 100+ Students from more than 30 Indian and overseas schools came together at ‘Infinity 2020 – The Ultimate Math Championship’ hosted by Aditya Birla World Academy in association with BITS Pilani to bring out their mathematical best. Infinity is a prestigious annual Inter-School Mathematics Competition, which has been held since 2014. The competition was held on 10th-11th January 2020 at Century Bhavan, Worli, Mumbai.

Infinity is the brainchild of Mr. Prodipta Hore, Coordinator of International Initiatives at Aditya Birla World Academy. The principle objective of organizing this contest is to inculcate a feeling of love for Mathematics through fun rounds of learning and bring together a community of Mathematics teachers and students on a platform where they could learn from each other and share their ideas.

The competition had a very interesting take on Mathematics and was curated to ensure that students solve problems at every stage. Starting from an Ice-breaker session, where students introduced themselves to each other using math problems and solutions to a poster making round where students had to create solutions and present them through a creative hand-made poster. The event also had an individual evaluation round called ‘Clash of Mathematicians’ where students were given a set of 30 questions to solve, followed by a round of ‘Math Challengers’ where students were given 10 questions arranged in increasing order of difficulty which they had to solve within 30 minutes.

An interesting round was ‘Pass the Baton’ which is like a sports relay where each question’s solution is passed on to the next team member to solve another problem. The competition ended with a round of ‘Quizzitch’ with the five best teams and the two teams that could answer most questions won.

The coveted winners of ‘Mathematician of the Year’ Gold Certificate & Trophy were Anupsa Swain from Navrachana School, Vadodara and Ivan Toth-Rohonyi from Mahindra United World College of India, Pune. Navrachana School, Vadodara won Gold Certificate & Trophy in Clash of Mathematicians Round, Quizzitch and as overall Champions. The Scindia School, Gwalior and Mahindra United World College of India, Pune won Gold Certificate & Trophy for Bulb Your Ideas and Pass the Baton respectively.

Infinity 2020 saw presence of luminaries such as Dr. James Tanton, a research mathematician deeply interested in bridging the gap between the Mathematics experienced by school students and Dr. Ranendra N. Saha, Director of BITS Pilani Dubai Campus as the Guests of Honor.

Mrs. Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson, Aditya Birla Education Trust, said, “Infinity 2020 saw the convergence of bright minds from across the globe, each student reveling in joy, logic and beauty of Mathematics. It was evident that days and weeks of planning had gone into the event which was meticulously executed by the Math Department and Grade 11 students of Aditya Birla World Academy to make it a roaring success.”

Mrs Radhika Sinha, Principal, Aditya Birla World Academy said, “We are delighted to enter 6th edition of Infinity and witness participation from schools grow every year. Through this competition, we aim to develop the skills of students, whose value far transcends Mathematics. Rounds are designed to constitute the most effective way of discovering and nurturing mathematical talent and to help students dispel the myth about Mathematics as either a difficult, dull or a tedious subject.”