UCL Maths Challenge 2008/2009

This year's UCL Maths Challenge consists of three stages.

The 1st stage, which took place on 20th January 2009 at UCL, comprised a Lecture about cryptography, Guided Tour of UCL and a Workshop. During the Workshop, pupils exploited some of the decryption and encryption methods they encountered in the Lecture. As a team of spies, they had to find their lost member. This event was noncompetitive.

Our next event, the 2nd stage, is scheduled to 18th March. It will take place in Somers Town Community Sports Centre (within walking distance from UCL). There will be several stands around the gym and pupils, divided into teams, will be supposed to carry out different tasks at each stand. These tasks will be both physically and logically/mathematically challenging. Pupils will get an "ingredient" for successful completion of each task and will have to build the highest tower out of the ingredients. Order of the teams will be announced at the end of the event.

The last stage of UCL Maths Challenge 2008/2009 will take place in June at UCL. It will be similar to last year's UCL Maths Challenge. Pupils will be competing in teams. There will be a number of exercises and the goal will be to solve as many of them as possible. The number and difficulty of exercises solved will be reflected in the teams' progress in a strategic game. As last year, we hope to have a performance of UCL Union's society (Bongos?!, possibly) during evaluation of results to amuse pupils. Order of the teams will be announced (results of both 2nd and 3rd stage will be taken into account) and the most successful teams will be awarded. Each participant will get a reminder.