Our first Julia Robinson Math Festival was a resounding success! 113 kids showed up and spent two and a half hours roaming Payton’s gym, doing tons of math, and, frankly, making a mess. Check out these photos to get an idea of what I’m talking about!
I have several thank yous to share. We had table leaders from all walks of mathematical life. School teacher’s like Kelly’s Serg Cvetkovic, Lakeview’s Matt Rosenberg and Steve Starr (ret.), Joe Ochiltree from the Chicago Free School, Whitney Young’s Julienne Au, along with Mike Caines and Sara Heiberger from Payton who each led a station. Eugenia Cheng, chef, classical musician, author, and mathematician in residence at the Art Institute engaged dozens in building elaborate polyhedra. UIC’s doctoral program again delivered–Janet Page, Edgar Bering, Nathan Lopez, Matt DeVilbliss, Sara Rezvi, and Wes Townshend were there, along with Daniel Salas Campos from UChicago. Local data scientist Abhinav Ghandi also led an activity!
Aaron Rosenberg, Dan Kang, and Zach Fogelson helped make sure everything ran smoothly, stepping in wherever needed. A big final thanks to Matt Moran and Ellie Dannenberg for co-leading the Festival and doing most of the advanced planning.
We fully expect to double in size next year when the Julia Robinson Math Festival next comes to Chicago. See you there next spring!