Math program promotes global community for at-risk Ukrainian high schoolers (2024)

WhenSophia Breslavets first heard aboutYulia’s Dream, the MIT Department of Mathematics’ Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science (PRIMES) for Ukrainian students,Russia had just invaded her country, and she and her family lived in a town 20 miles from the Russian border.

Breslavets had attended a school that emphasized mathematics and physics, took math classes on weekends and during summer breaks, and competed in math Olympiads.“Math was really present in our lives,” she says.

But the war shifted her studies to online. “It still wasn’t like a fully functioning online school,” she recalls. “You can’t socialize.”

So she was grateful to be accepted to the MIT program in 2022. “Yulia’s Dream was a great thing to happen to me personally, because in the beginning, when the war was just starting, I didn't know what to do. This was just a great thing to take your mind off of what's going on outside your window, and you can just kind of get yourself into that and know that you have some work to do, and that was huge.”

Second time around

Breslavets just finished up her second year in the online enrichment program, which offerssmall-group math instruction in their native language and in English to Ukrainian high schoolers by mentors from around the world. Students wrap up the program by presenting their papers at aconference; several of those papers are published onarXiv.org. This year’s conferencefeatured a guest talk by ProfessorPavlo Pylyavskyy of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, who discussed “Incidences and Tilings,” a joint work with ProfessorSergey Fomin of the University of Michigan.

The PRIMES program first organized Yulia’s Dream in 2022, named in memory of Yulia Zdanovska, a talented mathematician and computer scientist who was a teacher with Teach for Ukraine. She was 21 when she was killed in 2022 during Russian shelling in her home city of Kharkiv.

The program fulfills one of PRIMES’s goals, to expose students to the world community of research mathematics by connecting them with early-career mentors. Students must solve a challenging entrance problem set and are then referred by Ukrainian math teachers and leaders at math competitions and math camps.

Yulia’s Dream is coordinated by Dmytro Matvieievskyi, a postdoc at the Kavli Institute in Tokyo, who graduated from School #27 of Kharkiv, and is a recipient of the Bronze medal at the 2012 International Math Olympiad (IMO) as part of the Ukraine Team.

In its first year, from 2022 to 2023, the program drew 48 students in Phase I (reading) and 33 students in Phase II (reading and research). “Our expectation for 2022-23 was that each of six research groups would produce a research paper, and they all did, and one group continued working and produced an extra paper a few months after, for a total ofseven papers. Three papers are now on arXiv.org, which is a mark of quality. This went beyond our expectations.”

This past year, the program provided guided reading and research supervision to 32 students. “We conduct thorough selection and provide opportunities to all Ukrainian students capable of doing advanced reading and/or research at the requisite level,” says PRIMES’s director Slava Gerovitch PhD ’99.

MIT pipeline

Several students participated in both years, and at least two have been accepted toMIT.

One of those students is two-time Yulia’s Dream participant Nazar Korniichuk, who hadattended a high school in Kyiv that specialized in mathematics and physics when his education was disrupted by the war.

“I was confused and did not know which way I should go,” he recalls. “But then I saw the program Yulia's Dream, and the desire to try real mathematical research ignited.”

In his first year in the program, participation was a challenge. “On the one hand, it was very difficult, because in certain periods there was no electricity and no water. There was always stress and uncertainty about tomorrow. But on the other hand, because there was a war, it motivated me to do mathematics even more, especially during periods when there was no electricity or water.”

He did complete his paper, withKostiantyn Molokanov and Severyn Khomych, and with mentor Darij Grinberg PhD ’16, a professor of mathematics at Drexel University: “The Pak–Postnikov and Naruse skew hook length formulas: A new proof” (2 Oct 2023; arXiv.org, 27 Oct 2023).

Korniichuk completed his second round from his new home in Newton, Massachusetts, to which his family had migrated last summer. At the recent conference, he presented his paper, with co-authorsKostiantyn Molokanov and Severyn Khomych, “Affine root systems via Lyndon words,” that they worked on with mentor Professor Oleksandr Tsymbaliuk of Purdue University.

“Yulia’s Dream was a very unique experience for me,” says Korniichuk, who plans tostudy math and computer science at MIT.“I had the opportunity to work on a difficult topic for a long time and then take part in writing an article. Although these years have been difficult, this program encouraged me to go forward.”

Real research

What makes the program work is providing a university level of instruction in mathematics research, to prepare high school students for top mathematics programs. In this case, it provides Ukrainian students an alternative route to reach their educational goals.

The core philosophy of the Yulia’s Dream experience is to provide “the best possible approximation to real mathematical research,”math professor and PRIMES chief research advisorPavel Etingof told attendees at the 2024 conference. Etingof was born in Ukraine.

“In particular, all projects have to be real — i.e., of interest to professional research mathematicians — and the reading groups should be a bridge towards real mathematics as well. Also, the time frame of Yulia’s Dream is closer to that of real mathematical research than it is in any other high school research program: the students work on their projects for a whole year!”

Other principles include an emphasis on writing and collaboration, with students working on teams with undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. There is also an emphasis on computer-assisted math, which “not only allows participation of high school students as equal members of our research teams, but also allows them to grasp abstract mathematical notions more easily,” says Pavel. “If such notions (such as group, ring, module, etc.) have an incarnation in the familiar digital world, they are less scary.”

Breslavets says that she especially appreciates the collaboration part of the program. Now 16,Breslavets just finished her second year with Yulia’s Dream, and withAndrii Smutchak presented “Double groupoids,” as mentored by University of Alberta professor Harshit Yadav. She says that they began working on the paper in October, and ittook about three months to write.

This year’s session was easier for her to participate in, because in summer 2022, her parents found her a host family in Connecticut so that she could transfer to St. Bernard’s School. Even with her new school’s great curriculum, she is grateful for the Yulia’s Dream program.

“Our high school program is considered to be advanced, and we have a class that’s called math research, but it’s definitely not the same, because [with Yulia’s Dream] you're working with people who actually do that for a living,” she says. “I learned a lot from both of my mentors. It’s so collaborative. They can give you feedback, and they can be honest about it.”

She says she misses her Ukrainian math community, which drifted apart after the Covid-19 pandemic and because of the war, but reports finding a new one with Yulia’s Dream. “I actually met a lot of new people,” she says.

Group collaboration is a huge goal for PRIMES director Slava Gerovitch.

“Yulia’s Dream reflects the international nature of the mathematical community, with the mentors coming from different countries and working together with the students to advance knowledge for the whole of humanity. Our hope is that our students grow and mature as scholars and help rebuild the intellectual potential of Ukraine after the devastating war,” says Gerovitch.

Applications for next year’s program are now open. Math graduate students and postdocs are also invited to apply to be a mentor.Weekly meetings begin in October, and culminate in a June 2025 conference to present papers.

Math program promotes global community for at-risk Ukrainian high schoolers (2024)

FAQs

Which country has the best math program? ›

Singapore is the highest-performing country in mathematics, with a mean score of 564 points – more than 70 points above the OECD average. Three countries/economies – Hong Kong (China), Macao (China) and Chinese Taipei – perform below Singapore, but higher than any OECD country in PISA.

What country has the highest math score? ›

Just 7 percent of U.S. students scored at the highest levels in math, compared with 23 percent in Japan and South Korea, and 41 percent in Singapore, the top-performing country.

What is the US ranked in math? ›

As of 2022, the U.S. was below average in math but above average in science compared with other member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of mostly highly developed, democratic nations: U.S. students ranked 28th out of 37 OECD member countries in math.

How math has impacted the world? ›

Some of the most common applications of mathematical expertise in the modern world are in business, finance, and engineering. In business, mathematical expertise can be used to calculate financial ratios and statements, to analyse data, and to make predict future financial trends.

Which country has the hardest high school math? ›

Clearly India and Korea have the toughest math courses along with china.

Which country has most IQ in maths? ›

Download Table Data
CountryIQ (Lynn/Becker)PISA Math 2022
Japan106.48536
Taiwan106.47547
Singapore105.89575
Hong Kong105.37540
36 more rows

What country is #1 in education? ›

United States

What is the most difficult math in the world? ›

World's Most Puzzling Unsolved Math Problems
  1. Riemann Hypothesis. ...
  2. Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture. ...
  3. Hodge Conjecture. ...
  4. Navier-Stokes Equations. ...
  5. Yang-Mills Existence and Mass Gap. ...
  6. P vs NP Problem. ...
  7. Collatz Conjecture.

Which state has the lowest math ranking? ›

Falling 65 points short of the national average for the SAT in Mathematics and at a high participation rate of 84%, it's clear that West Virginia's high school seniors are in the poorest shape for math achievement. Texas, West Virginia, and New Mexico have some of the lowest graduation rates in the country.

Who is the best mathematician in the world right now? ›

Terence Tao
Terence Tao FAA FRS
Tao in 2021
Born17 July 1975 Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
CitizenshipAustralia United States
Alma materFlinders University (BSc, MSc) Princeton University (PhD)
12 more rows

Was the US ever #1 in education? ›

As recently as 20 years ago, the United States was ranked No. 1 in high school and college education. Much of the boom in American education during the second half of the 20th century was fueled by the Montgomery G.I.

What happens to the world without math? ›

There wouldn't have traded, day-to-day transactions will be chaotic. Without mathematics, all of the comforts which make our lives what they are today would be no more. It is a subject that is applied to every field and profession. Mathematics has a wide and huge application in every sphere of our life.

What is the most practical math? ›

Geometry. You might wonder, “What are the most useful math topics?” One of the most practical and applicable areas of mathematics is Geometry. This branch of mathematics deals with the properties and relationships of shapes, sizes, and properties of figures and spaces.

Does math really help you in life? ›

Math helps us think analytically and have better reasoning abilities. Analytical thinking refers to the ability to think critically about the world around us. Reasoning is our ability to think logically about a situation.

Where is the best place to study math? ›

Here are the best global universities for mathematics
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • University of Oxford.
  • Harvard University.
  • University of Cambridge.
  • Sorbonne Universite.
  • University of California Berkeley.
  • ETH Zurich.
  • Universite Paris Cite.

Is USA good at math? ›

In the most recent Program for International Student Assessment tests in math, or PISA, U.S. students scored lower than their counterparts in 36 other education systems worldwide.

Which country has the best math syllabus? ›

Not surprisingly, Singapore has long sat atop the list of the world's best mathematics and science programs.

What countries are the best in science and math? ›

The People's Republic of China ranked first in 2021 and the Russian Federation moved up from third to second place, swapping places with the U.S. The U.S. is followed in the rankings by Taiwan, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Romania, Hong Kong and Iran.

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