Posted on Wed 02 March 2022

The inaugural Integration Bee of the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS), Nanyang Technological University was held on the 1st of March 2022. The competition required participants to solve integrals within a time limit, with marks awarded based on speed and accuracy. The competition was organized for the first-time by the Odyssey student committee, supported by the Odyssey Programme under SPMS.

A total of 32 undergraduates across the Divisions of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry took part in the competition as individuals or in teams of 2. In the opening ceremony, the atmosphere of the event was heightened by the speech from Dr Gary Greaves, entitled “A History of Integral Calculus”. Participants then underwent 10 intense rounds of competition, with short breaks in between. The questions were displayed on the screen with a countdown timer, and participants would solve the integrals by writing down their answers on the sheets of paper provided. Rounds 1 to 7 had a time limit of 10 minutes while the hardest questions were set as Round 8 and 9, where the time limit was 20 minutes, with a hint provided at the 10th minute mark.

The First Place, with the title of “Grand Integrator” was awarded to Jasraj Singh. Second Place went to Yu Xiaoming and He Yutian. Third Place was awarded to Chan Ric.

The Grand Integrator, Jasraj Singh shared his thoughts on the competition. “Ever since I watched the MIT Integration Bee, I had been hoping for one in NTU as well. My excitement was through the roof when SPMS announced its first one ever, and I wasted no time to consider my schedule before signing up for it! The format was a little different, but just as fun! I enjoyed that the integrals required ingenuity, and that the format required speed. The competitive spirit around gave me an adrenaline boost I had been longing for a while! I was glad to see students from different courses competing - it added diversity to the competition which was particularly fun to be surrounded by. I appreciate the efforts made by the Odyssey Committee to organize this event and I look forward to the next one!" said Jasraj.

The organizing committee expressed their appreciation to everyone who was involved in making the event a success. Chan Joshua Juan Yin, head organizer of the event said “I would like to congratulate all the winners and participants of this Integration Bee event. I am sure they enjoyed the intellectual stimulus that the integration questions brought to them. I would also like to extend my appreciation to all the SPMS lecturers, teaching assistants and PhD students, for helping to set the questions and judging for the gameplay. When our organisers were planning to hold the Integration Bee, I was as excited as the participants because this is the first year we were organising this, with the possibility of continuing in the coming years if the event proved to be a success. I was delighted to see that all the participants stretched their limits and gave their best attempt at answering each question presented. I truly hope that the Odyssey Committee and SPMS students can carry on the competitive spirit and make a success of this event again!”

Congratulations to all the winners!