Press Release

(23 October 2013, Hong Kong) Whenever we talk about Mathematics, what comes into your mind? The abstract study of numbers or an equation difficult to comprehend? A group of Hong Kong students has applied a number of Mathematical theories together with creativity in their daily lives - all of which are aimed at making the study of mathematics more enjoyable.

The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE) and Mathematical Database have jointly organised the “Mathematics Resources Contest 2012-13”. The aim of this contest is to encourage students to think critically in order to identify and analyse mathematical problems in their daily life, and to explore, find and evaluate the solutions through problem-based learning. The prizes of the contest included “Gold Award”, “Silver Award”, “Bronze Award”, “Originality Award” and Honourable Mentions. The awardees would be given trophies and book vouchers.

The work ” 逃 生 密 碼 ” by Chak Tsz Fung, Cheung Wai Lam, Cheng Wai Chung and Cheung Chin Ho from The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education won the Gold Award.

The work “The Maths of Music” by Cheng Ching Yee, Cheung Hoi Lam , Kam Hei Yin Andrea, Lee Rachael, So Tsz Ching and Tse Atalie Ching Yee from St Stephen's Girls College, won two awards, namely Silver Award and Originality Award.

The work” Rectangle in triangle” by Cheng Yi Nam Elim, Ko Shuk Ping, Lau Hiu Nam Kirstie, Leung Janice, Lo Nga Yin Arlene and Mak Ho Yi Lydia from Good Hope School won Bronze Award.

The works of four teams won Honourable Mentions, including the work ” Fun 蛋 糕 ” by Cheung Wing Kei, Lam Tsz Yan, Leung Wing Kei, Liu Shun Yi and Shin Ka Meng from Cognitio College (Hong Kong) ;the work ” 交 通 燈 系 統 ” by Au Yeung Yung, Chan Ho Yan, and Tam Kit Yu from St. Catharine’s School For Girls, Kwun Tong; The work ” An Abundance of Cookies” by Ho Po Yau, Wong Po Huen Aubrey and Cheng Yuen Chun from St Paul's Secondary School; and the work ”Solving Differential Equations by Newton's Method” by Tsui Ho Lung, Ho Ngan Hang and Lam Ho Chun Alfred from The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education.

Ms. Ramida DIN, Associate Director (Student Programmes and Services) of HKAGE, said the contest attracted 91 students from 17 schools to participate, and 24 group projects were received. Two teams out of the seven finalists were student members of the HKAGE, one was awarded the Gold Award while the other group was awarded an Honourable Mention. “Apart from Gold, Silver and Bronze Award, the Originality Award was meant to foster students’ creativity”, Ms Din said, “as we know originality is one of the important characteristics of gifted students”. She added, the contest did not only aim to promote students’ interest in Mathematics, but also provided a valuable opportunity for them to think out of the box, to apply Mathematics to their daily life and to further discover the joy and the abstruse principles of Mathematical study.

Mr Wu Kai Chiu, Chairman of Mathematical Database, praised the innovative spirit and outstanding performance of the students. He said the participants had done a great job; they even used movies to illustrate their projects. The 7 finalists' projects were really impressive, and contained a variety of topics including cryptography, dividing cakes, music and mathematics, and the design of traffic light system. Professor Shum Kar Ping, retired Professor of Mathematics at CUHK, one of the adjudicators of the contest, commented that the contest was a wonderful success. He appreciated the participated teams' effort and their ability to apply mathematics on a day-to-day basis.

Mr Wu further commented, “The Maths of Music” team had done a lot of research, and he suggested them demonstrating their ideas by using beautiful tunes in future. The ” 交 通 燈 系 統 ” team made excellent use of models to showcase their idea; they copied every single traffic light and vehiicle of a particular region. However, model making projects should be based on real situations. Mr Wu pointed out that if this team could provide references based on real cases, itt would be more convincing to the audience.

For the ”Fun 蛋 糕 ” team, .he wondered whether their method could apply to all kinds of cakes. Lastly, the team of ” 逃 生 密 碼 ” tried to tell the history of cryptography and they also introduced decoding techniques. Itwas a great attempt; however they needed to show the decoding processes and what sort of thinking was involved.

Mr Wu suggested them to demonstrate the practical use of cryptography by showing the audience how to create a set of 400 digits prime number password.