PHL kids bag Int'l Math Olympiad medals

Young Philippine math wizards Kenneth Tan Co, Mikaela Angeline Uy, and Henry Jefferson Co Morco took home two bronze medals and an honorable mention at the 53rd International Math Olympiad (IMO) held on July 4 to 16, in Mar de Plata, Argentina.

 

Kenneth Tan Co of the Philippine Science High School-Diliman joined last year’s IMO where he obtained 12 points. This year, he scored 14 points together with Saint Jude Catholic School’s Mikaela Angeline Uy, a first-timer in the competition. Both of them won bronze medals.

 

A bronze medalist in last year’s IMO, Henry Jefferson Co Morco obtained 13 points, which gave him an honorable mention.

 

The three of them won the 14th Philippine Mathematics Olympiad (PMO) organized by the Department of Science and Technology Science Education Institute, and the Mathematical Society of the Philippines.

 

For this year’s IMO, the Philippines ranked 73rd of the 100 countries that competed. The performance of our delegation for this year ties with that of our delegation in 1991. Last year, the Philippine team ranked 54th with three bronze medals —still the country’s best performance in the competition to date.

 

Together with the three students were their team leader Dr. Julius M. Basilia, and deputy team leader Dr. Job A. Nable.

 

IMO is an international mathematics competition for highschool students. Some 100 countries send teams of up to six students, a team leader, deputy team leader, and observers to join competition every year. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959, with participants from seven countries. The topics of the contest range from projective and complex geometry, functional equations, number theory, to complex precalculus problems.  — TJD, GMA News