UNM hosts second round of the 58th UNM-PNM statewide high school mathematics contest

The second and final round of the 2025-2026 UNM-PNM Statewide High School Mathematics Contest was held in the SMLC building at UNM on February 14. Over 110 students from 27 schools in Albuquerque, Los Alamos, Las Cruces, Lordsburg, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, and Zuni gathered in the SMLC auditorium, where they were challenged with 8 puzzling problems ranging from games, probability, paradoxical areas, number theory/counting, logic, thick octagons, nonlinear equations, and bit representation. Graduate students and faculty volunteered to proctor and distribute t-shirts.

Students participating in the event.

"The contest problems are always challenging, and proved especially so this year. No matter, in the crucible of the moment students always find delightfully creative solutions, often unanticipated by the organizers," said the contestorganizers.

That morning students along with parents, siblings, teachers, and the community attended a public lecture: "What Do Ecosystems Look Like? Geometry in Evolution and Ecology" by Mathematics Professor Elizabeth Gross from University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Many questions were raised by the audience after this engaging lecture.

The contest organizers have carefully graded each student's solutions, and the winners will be announced in the last week of March. An awards ceremony and banquet will be held on Saturday, April 18 in the Student Union Building at UNM. The ceremony will honor winners in each grade 5-12, as well as overall winners, and the top-scorer for each school. This gathering is always inspiring. Books, monetary prizes, and gift cards are given to students and their teachers, thanks to generous support from PNM, the Public Service Company of New Mexico.

This year's Contest is the 58th, with nearly uninterrupted organization by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UNM since 1965.