Students from Devonport high School for Boys will be joining other aspiring mathematicians from across the UK in the national finals of a prestigious maths challenge.
The final, taking place in London on February 4, is run by the UK Mathematics Trust and the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme, supported by LetterOne.
Teams from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will compete in a range of challenges in a bid to win the prestigious title.
The team consists of Somsubhro Bagchi (team captain), Robert Liu, Aidan Ricketts and Lalit Kathiresan as well as their teacher – Tay Huq. Two of the team, Somsubhro Bagchi and Robert Liu, will be participating in the challenge for the third time this year.
Over 1100 schools and colleges entered the competition and the best 88 have qualified to take part in the fiercely testing grand finale. First and foremost, the teams will fight for the kudos of being crowned the best school or college maths team in the UK but they will also receive a trophy, presented by University Challenge contestant and famous maths teacher – Bobby Seagull – as well as book prizes and medals.
Somsubhro said:
“A lot of the time people talk about maths as something that is useful for life, and that is true, but I actually like maths because it’s fun. In fact it’s beautiful. It’s like asking what use a painting has – it doesn’t have to have any particular use.”
Maths teacher Tay Huq has entered students into the challenge for 12 of the 14 years he has been teaching. His teams have reached the national finals on most of these occasions and one team even achieved eighth place, some feat in an elite competition that brings together the brightest young minds in the country.
This year Tay hopes for a top 10 finish, although he is happy with what his team have already achieved:
“Teaching is the most rewarding job I’ve ever done and I love taking students to this competition,”
he said.
