Math Academy

The Math Academy is offered in-person at the University of Toronto – St. George campus.

Details

Math Academy is a challenging, one-week, intensive, enrichment experience for students in grades 9-12 with very strong mathematical thinking ability. Students are accepted into the program on the basis of their solutions to a problem set which is aimed at highlighting their ability to think mathematically and creatively rather than testing for specific curricular knowledge.

The program is typically run during the summer and march break. Each one-week term is a standalone special topics course that goes in-depth on a single topic. The topic will be creative, fun, and somewhat abstract; in other words, what mathematicians consider “real math.” Math Academy includes both lecture-style teaching and significant time devoted to independent and small-group problem-solving.

Math Academy will be organized in-person over March Break and Summer each year. See below for additional details.


March Break Math Academy 2025 (In-Person Program) - Coming Soon

Date: March 10 - 14 2025 (one week)

Schedule: Monday - Friday; 10am - 4:30pm (Except Tuesday, 10am - 4pm with a slightly shorter lunch break)

Instructor: Austin Sun (PhD Student)

Course Title: Combinatorics and Geometry: Counting Lattice Points in Polygons

Course Description:

Suppose that you are given a polygon in a two dimensional grid, so that the polygon encloses a certain number of points on the grid, called lattice points. Can you figure out a general way of counting the number of lattice points inside the polygon? It turns out that this question reveals some very interesting connections between combinatorics, the study of counting problems, and geometry. We can find relations between this question to classic problems such as tiling a two-dimensional plane, which has been extensively studied by mathematicians. Moreover, this question also has some deep connections to sphere packing problems, one of the most active research areas in modern geometry. In this week-long program, we will explore solutions to the problem of counting lattice points in polygons, and discover many connections between this problem and active research areas in mathematics.


Cost

The cost of the program is $450+tax for the one week term.

Bursaries are available. Please wait until you've been accepted into Math Academy before requesting a bursary here.


Location

University of Toronto - St. George Campus (In-Person), Exact Room and Building location will be announced after your acceptance to the program.


Apply

Students must first apply for the program and be accepted in order to register. Successful applicants will be informed of their acceptance as soon as possible. 

Application Deadline: Monday February 17th 2025

Please note the application consists of two parts, a completed quiz and a short answer to what makes you interested in math academy. Applications will open on February 4th. The links below will be updated once applications are open.