OTTAWA, Ontario - Five students earn top honours and 16 students named provincial winners in the 2005 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC). The COMC is organized and administered by the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) in collaboration with the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (University of Waterloo). Over 6300 students from all across Canada wrote the tenth Open on November 23, 2005. Students had to solve 12 questions during the two and one-half hour time limit.

"The Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge is designed to motivate students beyond their regular classroom work and provide a mathematics enrichment challenge," said Mr. Ian VanderBurgh, University of Waterloo, and Chair of the CMS COMC Committee. "In addition, the Open acts as a qualifying paper for the 2006 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad which will be written on March 29, 2006."

Prize Winners: The top five contestants in the 2005 Open are: Farzin Barekat, Sutherland Secondary School, North Vancouver, BC; Boris Braverman, Sir Winston Churchill High School, Calgary, AB; David Rhee, McNally Composite High School, Edmonton, AB; Peng Shi, Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute, Scarborough, ON; Allen Zhang, St. George's School, Vancouver, BC.

For outstanding performance in the COMC, the 2005 Open Provincial Winners are: Alberta - Boris Braverman, Sir Winston Churchill High School, Calgary; British Columbia - Farzin Barekat, Sutherland Secondary School, North Vancouver, and Allen Zhang, St. Georges School, Vancouver; Manitoba - Yuchen Mu, St. John's-Ravenscourt School, Winnipeg; New Brunswick - Wei Zhong Ye, Fredericton High School, Fredericton; Newfoundland and Labrador - Roger He, Prince of Wales Collegiate Institute, St. John's, and Mark Yang, Prince of Wales Collegiate Institute, St. John's; Nova Scotia - Ethan Macaulay, The Halifax Grammar School, Halifax; Ontario Central - Yongho Park, Richmond Hills High School, Richmond Hill; Ontario East - Alan Guo, O'Neill Collegiate Vocational Institute, Oshawa; Ontario Metro - Peng Shi, Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute, Scarborough; Ontario North - Yuhan Chen, Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate Vocational Institute, Thunder Bay; Ontario West - Chen Sun, London Central Secondary School, London; Prince Edward Island - John Paul Masson, Charlottetown Rural High School, Charlottetown; Québec - Chenglong Zou, John Abbott College, Ste. Anne de Bellevue; Saskatchewan - Bobby Xiao, Walter Murray Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon.

"All the winners have done extremely well on a very challenging competition and have demonstrated the essential and creative problem solving skills so essential in today's workplace," said Dr. George Bluman, University of British Columbia and Chair of the CMS Mathematical Competitions Committee. "Students with excellent problem solving skills are vital if Canada is to be competitive in the global marketplace."

Approximately 75 of the top students from the 2005 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge have been invited to write the 2006 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO). The CMO is Canada's premier mathematics competition organized and administered by the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS). "These top students will be busy honing their problem solving skills as they prepare for the 2006 CMO and try to be one of six students who will be chosen to represent Canada at the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad in Ljubljana, Slovenia in July," said Dr. Graham Wright, CMS Executive Director. "These valuable enrichment activities are only possible because of the voluntary help received from many school, college and university teachers."

The 2005 Open results, questions and solutions are available at:

http://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/english/contests/open.shtml

For more information, contact:

Dr. Graham P. Wright
Executive Director
Canadian Mathematical Society
(613) 562-5702

or

Mr. Ian VanderBurgh
Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing
University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567, ext 2358