{{unreferenced, date=December 2013 Stanford University Mathematics Camp, or SUMaC, is a competitive summer mathematics program for rising high school juniors and seniors around the world. The camp lasts for 4 weeks, usually from mid-July to mid-August. It is based on the campus of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Like the Ross Program at

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

and the

PROMYS Arnold Ephraim Ross (August 24, 1906 – September 25, 2002) was a mathematician and educator who founded the Ross Mathematics Program, a number theory summer program for gifted high school students. He was born in Chicago, but spent his youth i ...

program at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, SUMaC does not put emphasis on competition-math preparations but focuses instead on advanced undergraduate math topics.

History

SUMaC was founded in 1995 by Professors Rafe Mazzeo and Ralph Cohen of the Stanford Mathematics Department and has been directed from the beginning by Prof. Mazzeo, and Dr. Rick Sommer. Dr. Sommer was an assistant professor in the Stanford Mathematics Department and is currently a deputy director of the

Education Program for Gifted Youth The Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) at Stanford University was a loose collection of gifted education programs formerly located within Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies program. EPGY included distance and residential summer courses for s ...

( EPGY), at Stanford. He designed the Program I course and has been teaching versions of it since the first SUMaC in 1995. The Program II course was designed and has been taught by Prof. Rafe Mazzeo. (In recent years, the course was cotaught by Dr. Pierre Albin, a former Stanford graduate student who currently teaches at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, and is currently taught by Dr. Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo, a postdoctoral fellow in statistics at Stanford.)

Programs

* Program I investigates non-constructibility in geometry, classification of patterns in two dimensions, error-correcting codes,

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logy, -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of Adversary (cryptography), ...

, and the analysis of the Rubik's Cube. The mathematics that is central to solving these problems comes from the areas of

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are set (mathematics), sets with specific operation (mathematics), operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structur ...

and

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

. * Program II contains an introduction to selected topics in

combinatorial Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

, differential, and

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up t ...

. The program emphasizes developing ideas from, and problems in,

geometric topology In mathematics, geometric topology is the study of manifolds and Map (mathematics)#Maps as functions, maps between them, particularly embeddings of one manifold into another. History Geometric topology as an area distinct from algebraic topo ...

where methods from

and

calculus Calculus is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations. Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the ...

have proven to be effective tools.

Other activities

During the camp, there are frequent guest lectures given by internationally renowned mathematicians. These talks are in the areas of current mathematical research.

Ravi Vakil Ravi D. Vakil (born February 22, 1970) is a Canadian-American mathematician working in algebraic geometry. He is the current president of the American Mathematical Society. Education and career Vakil attended high school at Martingrove Collegiat ...

, a current Stanford mathematics professor and a 4-time

Putnam Fellow The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...

, talked to the students in 2007. Also in 2007, Tyson Mao, one of the best cube solvers in the world, taught SUMaC students how to solve the Rubik's Cube. Other speakers in 2007 included Drs. Kay Kirkpatrick (

), Ted Shifrin (

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

), and Pete Storm (Stanford). In 2014, John Edmark, professor of art and art history at Stanford, spoke about his current work in mathematics-inspired sculptures, and Brian Conrey, executive director of the

American Institute of Mathematics The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) is one of nine mathematical institutes in the United States, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It was founded in 1994 by John Fry, co-founder of Fry's Electronics, and originally located ...

, gave a lecture on the Twin Primes Conjecture and the

Riemann Hypothesis In mathematics, the Riemann hypothesis is the conjecture that the Riemann zeta function has its zeros only at the negative even integers and complex numbers with real part . Many consider it to be the most important unsolved problem in pure ...

. Students at SUMaC also engage in a variety of sports activities during their free time. Such sports include

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

, and

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. SUMaC was the backdrop for

Justina Chen Headley Justina Chen (born 1968 in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania) is a Taiwanese-American fiction writer and executive communications consultant. She is best known for her young-adult fiction, especially ''North of Beautiful'' (2009), ''A Blind Spot for Boy ...

's book ''Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies)'', a teen novel about a half-Taiwanese girl who finally finds her identity at the math camp.

Teaching assistants and counselors

Most of the SUMaC residential counselors and teaching assistants are Stanford mathematics graduate students and undergraduate math majors. SUMaC usually has a 1-to-4 ratio of staff to students, with most of the teaching assistants serving in the role of live-in counselors. Many of the SUMaC teaching assistants and counselors return from previous years, and some attended SUMaC in high school.

Residence

SUMaC students have traditionally been housed in Synerg

a small Stanford-student residence that is a famously vegetarian co-op during the academic year, though there have been years when students lived in Κappa Alpha (KA). Each student has one, two or three roommates, and the floors are divided by sex. Dining takes place at a separate dining hall shared by other summer youth programs at

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

External links

SUMaC: Official Site

Synergy House at Stanford: Official Site
Mathematics summer camps Stanford University 1995 establishments in California