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Problem Solving Group

Published: Apr 19, 2023

Last Modified: Jul 18, 2023

The UTSC Problem Solving Group meets weekly to learn the art and craft of problem solving. We meet on Tuesdays at 09:00 in IC-220. We’ll start meeting during the week of Monday, May 8th, 2023.

Each month, we have three kinds of events:

  1. Lectures: speakers introduce and explain contest-problem strategies
  2. Problem solving sessions: we work on contest problems
  3. Hikes: we go for a hike, usually to Creek Coffee and Co, and talk about math problems

Summer 2023 Schedule

This summer, we will read through The Art and Craft of Problem-Solving by Paul Zeitz (UToronto Library). The major sections of the book are:

Date Speaker Topic Notes Attendance
Thursday April 20th 2023 @ 13:00 Parker Glynn-Adey Planning Putnam Power Preparation 9
Tuesday May 16th Parker Glynn-Adey Getting Started: Simplifying Problems and Getting Hands Dirty handout 7
Tuesday May 30th Rizo Generating functions 9
Tuesday June 6th None Hike (weather permitting) 8
Tuesday June 13th Malhar Combinatorics handout 9
Tuesday June 20th (Reading Week) None Hike 4
Tuesday June 27th None Problem Solving Session 2021 Putnam Contest 6
Tuesday July 4th Adib Biology handout 9
Tuesday July 11th Robert Recursively defined sets handout 8
Tuesday July 18th Rizo Problem Solving Sesion 2019 Putnam Contest 6
Arun General strategies / inequalities
Alankrit Binomial theorem / permutations
Chaitanya Number theory
Sasha Probability
Thomas Complex numbers / number theory

Thursday April 20th 2023 @ 13:00

Things to decide on:

  1. Day and time – We’ll send out a WhenIsGood poll.
  2. Order of speakers – Currently alphabetical, subject to revision.

Resources

Putname Specific

General

Contest Mathematics

Puzzle-y Math

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