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APSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics places first in MAA Math Jeopardy Competition

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – If the answer is “The best in the southeast,” then the question is “What is Austin Peay State University?”

The APSU Math Jeopardy team recently bested 27 other schools to take home the 2015 Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Jeopardy championship at the MAA Southeastern Section meeting, held March 12-14 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – If the answer is “The best in the southeast,” then the question is “What is Austin Peay State University?”

The APSU Math Jeopardy team recently bested 27 other schools to take home the 2015 Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Jeopardy championship at the MAA Southeastern Section meeting, held March 12-14 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

APSU’s winning team was mentored by associate professor of mathematics, Dr. Ben Ntatin and consisted of team captain David Zhang, Mathew Rayburn, Ryan Honea and Thomas Clayborn.

Ntatin’s team blew away the competition, which consisted of squads from universities such as the University of Tennessee at Martin, Duke, The Citadel and South Carolina.

The Math Jeopardy contest is part of the MAA national and sectional annual meeting. Following the format of the game show “Jeopardy!,” each team consists of up to four students who compete to answer the problems from the subjects of undergraduate mathematics, such as calculus, differential equations, discrete equations, discrete mathematics, linear algebra and history of mathematics.

Ntatin said that his team, which finished second in last year’s competition, made some changes to its strategies. The alterations were wildly successful, as the APSU team dominated the field in the 2015 competition.

“We changed our strategy from last year where we finished in second place,” Ntatin said. “As a result this year, we actually cleaned the tables not losing too many points and ending with 8,001 points, as compared to 200 points for the second place team from South Carolina.”

For more information, contact the APSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics at (931) 221-7833.