Bobby Shen, a senior at Dulles High School, helped form Team USA at the 53rd International Mathematical Olympiad, held July 4-16 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
The six-member team representing various states throughout the US competed among 548 students at the annual competition, which challenges pre-college students to solve six math problems covering a wide range of mathematical components.
Participants may be asked to determine composite positive integers, prove that the lengths of all sides of polygons in a dissection are also rational numbers, and so forth.
After competing in various rounds at the competition, Team USA placed third overall with a score of 194. Shen, the only member from Texas, earned 39 points, which was the third-best score among students competing in the contest. Students with a score of at least 28 points received a gold medal.
Those who earned 21-27 points received silver, and students earning 14-20 points were presented with bronze medals. Combined, Team USA members earned five gold medals and one silver.
Shen’s academic competition experience includes the 2011 US Physics Team, the USA Math Olympiad (2009-2011), Mathematics Olympiad Program 2011, Romanian Masters of Mathematics, USA Biology Olympiad Semifinals 2011, USA Physics Olympiad Finalist 2011, and various other competitions.