Teams advance in first DSALT Computational Mathematics Inter-school Championship

At the Faculty of Engineering of the Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception (UCSC), the second session of the ‘First Interscholastic Championship of Computational Mathematics DSALT’ was held this Saturday, October 14.

On the occasion, the progress achieved after the resolution of the first challenge was reviewed and the second was announced. “In the last stage, they knew basic notions, and the challenge they were left with was aimed at putting them into practice so that they could put together something more elaborate and they were asked, without explicitly telling them, to program certain methods to solve non-linear equations,” explained DSALT Anillo Project researcher (ACT210087) and academic from the UCSC Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics, Dr. Jessika Camaño Valenzuela.

“In this second session, it was explained to them that, in reality, what they programmed were certain methods to find roots of nonlinear functions, where they came from and, now that they understood a little more about the subject, they could experiment by themselves solving some exercises”, added the also principal investigator of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the U. de Chile and the Center for Research in Mathematical Engineering (CI²MA) of the U. de Concepción.

The groups representing the five participating schools (Liceo San Pedro, Colegio Santísima Trinidad, The Wessex School, Thomas Jefferson STEM School and Mozart Schule), reached different degrees of achievement of the objectives set for the first challenge. This was explained by the director of DSALT and CMM associate researcher, Dr. Ricardo Oyarzúa Vargas. “The first challenge has allowed us to evaluate the level of computational knowledge that the students of the invited schools have, and there is certainly a difference in the students’ previous knowledge,” said the academic from the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Sciences of the U. del Bío-Bío. “However,” he continued, “we are very pleased with the results and, beyond the results, I greatly emphasize the commitment and willingness of students and teachers.”

Among the participants, Claudia Gutiérrez, a math teacher at the Mozart Schule school, commented that “I think the initiative is excellent. I, in particular, lack a bit of experience in this computational part. Although we use programs, they are more basic, so the fact that the children come to program and that they have a workshop where they are taught, has been very useful and we have learned a lot. It has been a nice experience”.

On Saturday, November 4, the third session corresponding to the final of the championship will be held at the Innovation Center of the Universidad del Bío-Bío.

By Iván R. Tobar Bocaz, CMM journalist.

Posted on Oct 31, 2023 in News