Barge Team Competition

Solve fun problems and puzzles over the course of the semester in teams of 3–5 (Lafayette) students for a chance to win (per team):

First prize: $1000
Second prize: $750
Third prize: $500

The problems usually involve some ingenuity or insight and generally not lots of background information from previous courses. The topics range over all areas of mathematics: geometry, number theory, combinatorics, algebra, calculus, and more. Have fun!

If interested in competing, please contact Professor Jonathan Bloom (bloomjs@lafayette.edu).

Official Contest Rules

  1. A team must consist of between three and five currently enrolled Lafayette students.
  2. No more than one solution to each problem may be submitted by a team, and that solution must be submitted by the problem deadline.
  3. The Mathematics Department determines the winners of the semester competition based on the quality of the solutions submitted that semester. That decision is final.
  4. The members of the team are encouraged to discuss the current problem among themselves, but may not include non-members in those discussions. Additionally, no internet or online source may be used during the solution and/or subsequent writeup of the problem for submission. Failure to abide by this rule may result in disqualification of the entire team.

Current Problems:

Past Winners:

Fall 2022

First Place:
Annie Hou, Peter Li, Nam Vu

Second Place:
Jacob Porter, Henry Steinthal, Ryan Wedeking

Spring 2022

First Place:
Corey Beck, Beth Anne Castellano, Deniz Ozbay, Anna Zittle

Second Place:
Annie Hou, Nam Vu

Third Place:
Brett Berger, Peter Li, Zheping (Zeplin) Yin

FALL 2021

First Place:
Beth Anne Castellano, Anna Zittle, Deniz Ozbay, Corey Beck

Second Place:
Peter Li, Brett Berger, Zheping (Zeplin) Yin

Third Place:
Ceyhun Elmacioglu, Kevin Manogue

Fall 2020, Spring 2021 – casualties of COVID
FALL 2019

First Place (tie):
Michael Bongiorno, Tara Leininger,  Kevin Manogue, and Will Murphy
and
Bobby Luo, Zerui Xu, Jeremy Yu, and Bingsong Zeng,

Third Place:
Elene Karangozishvili, Zurab Mestiashvili, and  Deniz Ozbay

Spring 2019

First Place (tie):
Xiaonan Chen, Elene Karangozishvili, Bingsong Zeng, Andrej Ilievski
and
Xunyao (Bobby) Luo, Zhanfan Yu, Zerui Xu, and Xinyu Hu.

Third Place:
Dylan Drescher, Greg Bove, Ross Kennedy.

Fall 2018

First Place:
Xiaonan Chen, Elene Karangozishvili, Tanmay Kale, Bingsong Zeng

Second Place:
Sijia Du, Xunyao Luo, Xinyu Xie, Zhanfan Yu

Third Place:
Ben Adenbaum, Erik Laucks, Josh Nolan, Keith Vreeland

Spring 2018

First Place:
Elene Jalagonia, Zura Mestiashvili, Elene Karangozishvili

Second Place:
Xiaoshi Wang, Xiaonan Chen, Tianman Huang

Third Place:
Ben Adenbaum, Hayden Dodge, John Jaimieson, Tanmay Kale, Keith Vreeland

Fall 2017

First Place:
Ben Adenbaum, Hayden Dodge, John Jamieson, Tanmay Kale, Keith Vreeland

Second Place (tie):
Xiaonan Chen, Tianman Huang, Xiaoshi Wang

and

Zikun Dong, Yue Wu, Bown Xue, Bingsong Zeng

Third Place:
Trisha Agarwal, Elene Karangozishvili, Erik Laucks, Zura Mestiashvili

Fall 2016

First Place:
Ben Adenbaum, John Jamieson, Martin Segall

Second Place:
Pierrette Umwali Dushime, Andrej Ilievski, Saeed Malami, Eunkyung Park

Third Place:
Xiaonan Chen, Tianman Huang, Xiaoshi Wang

Spring 2016

First Place:
Hoa Duong, Joaquin Font, Huy Nguyen, Qi Yu

Second Place:
Ben Adenbaum, John Jamieson, Martin Segall

Third Place:
Ha My Bui, Linh Le, Lanxin Zhang

Fall 2015

First Place:
Hoa Duong, Joaquin Font and Huy Nguyen

Second Place:
Xiaoyu, Linqing Zhou and Zhiwei Zhu

Third Place:
Xiaonan Chen, Sheng Miao and Qi Yu

Spring 2015

First Place:
Blake Bortnick, Samantha Miller-Brown and Martin Segall

Second Place:
John Jamieson, Josh Nolan, Bryan Sherril, Chris VanBlargan and Thomas Williams

Third Place:
Josh Arfin, Noah Breininger, Vincent DeMarco and Benjamin Draves

Fall 2014

First Place:
Bach Nguyen, Huy Nguyen, Oanh Doan, and Thanh Vu

Second Place:
Anni Gao, Juan Posso, and Jason Saied

Third (tie):
Wah Loon Keng, Brandon Strickland, and Atanas Angelov

and

Sheng Miao, Yuxiang Shen, and Samantha Miller-Brown.

Spring 2014

First Place:
Anni Gao, Rachel Gordon, Juan Posso, and Jason Saied

Second Place:
Atanas Angelov, Wah Loon Keng, Dana Lapides, and Brandon Strickland

Third Place:
Recep Celebi, Ivan Evtimov, Bach Nguyen, and Dantong Zhu

Fall 2013

First Place:
Anni Gao, Juan Posso, and Jason Saied

Second Place:
Linh Nguyen, Long Nguyen, and Mai Nguyen

Third Place:
Ha My Bui, Linh Le, and Hong Ha Vu

Spring 2013

First Place:
Linh Nguyen, Long Nguyen, and Mai Nguyen

Second Place:
Anni Gao, Rachel Gordon, and Juan Posso

Third Place (tie):
Andrew Brady, Chris Miles, Stephanie Roebelen, and Chao Wang
and
Atanas Angelov, Wah Loon Keng, and Brandon Strickland

Fall 2012

First Place:
Andrew Brady, Chris Miles, Stephanie Roebelen, and Chao Wang

Second Place:
Eric Gallant, Haley Garrison, Helen Hutchins, and Jason Sheng

Third Place:
Dan Bolognini, Grant Kempski, and Brandon Ross