Conference hotel and travel note

With World Cup visitors crowding New York, hotel rooms are limited.  MoMath strongly recommends booking early.  MoMath has reserved a fully refundable block of rooms at three conveniently located hotels:

• Washington Square Hotel
  103 Waverly Place
  New York, NY 10011
  Available until March 26, 2026
  Travel time to MoMath:
  • 12 minutes via PATH, F, or M trains
  • 14 minutes via M1, M3, or M55 buses
  • 16-minute walk

• Freehand New York
  23 Lexington Ave
  New York, NY 10010
  Available until May 16, 2026
  Travel time to MoMath:
  • 10 minutes via M23+ bus
  • 15-minute walk

Additional hotel options:

• UNTITLED at 3 Freeman Alley Hotel
  3 Freeman Alley
  New York, NY 10002
  Book here
• Library Hotel
  299 Madison Ave, E 41st St
  New York, NY 10017
  Book here
• Pod 39 Hotel
  145 East 39th Street (between 3rd Ave & Lexington Ave)
  New York, NY 10016
  Book here

Aastha Patel – Alice in Calculand

In this imaginative, short book inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Aastha transports readers into “Calculand,” where Alice encounters the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and a delightfully silly caterpillar.  Along the way, these whimsical characters introduce her to the core ideas of calculus: derivatives, limits, and the chain rule.  With lively illustrations and playful storytelling, the project makes potentially intimidating concepts feel approachable.  The judges admired the ingenuity of blending a beloved literary classic with mathematical ideas to create a welcoming doorway into calculus.
Click here to read Aastha’s book.

Purav Kaneria – The Ballad of the Broken Sum

Purav’s “The Ballad of the Broken Sum” is a poetic yet comical tragedy told from the perspective of the harmonic series itself.  Through verse, the series laments its fate: each term shrinking smaller and smaller, yet the sum forever refusing to settle.  Along the way, Purav weaves in classical proofs—like Oresme’s grouping argument—while capturing the anxiety, persistence, and paradoxical “unharmonic” quality of this famous divergent series.  The work is bold, poignant, and remarkably original, transforming a deep mathematical idea into a human drama.  The judges were struck by its gutsiness, creativity, and emotional resonance, praising it as an unforgettable example of how poetry can illuminate mathematics.
Click here to read Purav’s poem.

Nickita Zhang and Philina Zhang – Derive Me Crazy

Nickita and Philina bring high energy to this original musical performance about derivatives of trigonometric functions.  Playing the keyboard and violin with jaunty flair, they perform a witty, memorable song that recites the often-confusing formulas in a way that’s hard to forget.  The judges praised the musicianship, creativity, and humor of the performance, noting how the catchy tune will help students recall the formulas long after the performance is over.  It’s a joyful example of how music can make learning math both fun and memorable

Click here to watch their video.

Sujal Kharel – Beyond the Curves & Lines: Life Lessons Hidden in Graphs

Sujal’s essay brings a humanistic eye to the graphs of Algebra II and precalculus.  The undulations of a sine wave become metaphors for life’s ups and downs; the shape of a circle mirrors the cyclical nature of life.  By interpreting graphs as echoes of human experience, Sujal invites readers to see familiar xy-plane figures not as abstractions but as reflections of life itself.  The judges admired this poetic interpretation, recognizing its potential to draw new audiences into mathematics by connecting it with emotion and meaning.

Click here to read Sujal’s essay.

Jason Lu – The Great Staircase Showdown!

Jason’s video turns a classic staircase problem into an explanatory tour de force.  With humor, music, and great pacing, he introduces recursion formulas and dynamic programming through the question: how many ways can you climb an eleven-step staircase, if you can hop one, two, or three steps at a time?  The ideas unfold in perfect order—skillful, but never pedantic—and culminate in real-world applications that show the broader reach of these techniques.  The judges admired both the playfulness and the depth of this exceptionally well-crafted entry.
Click here to watch Jason’s video.

Neha Krishnan and Sanvi Krishnan – A Musical Interpretation of the Collatz Conjecture (ft. Collatz the Cat)

In this innovative video, Neha and Sanvi translate the Collatz conjecture into music.  Each number becomes a note on the piano, producing motifs that repeat when different starting numbers converge to the same sequence.  By hearing the conjecture, rather than just reading about it, viewers gain an intuitive grasp of this famously unsolved problem.  The judges praised the creativity, clarity, and interdisciplinary flair of this project, highlighting how human sensitivity to sound can reveal hidden patterns in mathematics.
Click here to watch their video.

Frida Greene – The Garden Ratio: Why Plants Grow the Way They Do

Inspired by the work of Vi Hart, Frida’s video explores why plants follow Fibonacci patterns.  With a spirit of curiosity and wonder, she guides the viewer into the mathematics of phyllotaxis, the arrangement of leaves and seeds in plants.  The explanations are pleasant and accessible, showing how the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers appear in the natural world.  The judges appreciated the enthusiasm and clarity of this project, as well as its ability to connect abstract mathematics to the beauty of everyday life.
Click here to watch Frida’s video.

Salma Aouissi – The Wason Selection Task

Salma’s project uses a crisp, clever cartoon to illuminate one of the most famous problems in logic: the Wason Selection Task.  By tying the puzzle to the idea of the contrapositive, she makes the underlying reasoning clear and accessible.  The accompanying essay reinforced the lesson and framed the problem thoughtfully.  While the cartoon’s style is simple, the communication is strong—conveying a subtle concept with admirable directness.  The judges were impressed by this inventive approach to a classic puzzle in logic.
Click here to read Salma’s comic.

Grace Zhang – Knot Theory Theater Presents: The Tricolorable Case

Grace’s video turns knot theory into a detective story, bringing abstract mathematics vividly to life.  At the heart of the mystery lies the concept of tricolorability—an invariant that distinguishes different knots.  With delightful clarity, Grace compares invariants to features of a person that remain unchanged despite changes in fashion or hairstyle, making a subtle concept instantly accessible.  The judges loved the originality, charm, and concision of this entry, applauding its playful tone and lucid explanations as hallmarks of outstanding communication.
Click here to watch Grace’s video.

Chloe Leshnower – How Mathematics Painted White Noise Pink

In this lively and inventive video, Chloe explains how mathematics transforms the apparent randomness of white noise into the more soothing pink noise.  With clarity and humor, she ties the mathematics to real-world experiences teenagers care about—like how to get a better night’s sleep.  The judges praised the strong explanatory thread, the use of props and scene changes, and the knack for making a non-standard topic both engaging and understandable.  This was a polished, playful, and memorable exploration of math in everyday life.
Click here to watch Chloe’s video.

Samuel Scheinblum — The Life of X

Samuel’s project combines poetry and visual design into a meditation on the experience of solving for x.  The poem traces the arc of effort and understanding, from the blur of confusion to the moment when “the blur becomes a story.”  The judges admired the integration of words, shape, and mathematical insight, all working together to convey what it feels like to wrestle with a problem until clarity dawns.  Deeply original and beautifully expressed, this entry resonated as both art and math communication, earning its place as a standout winner.

Click here to read Samuel’s poem.

Given a bunch of smaller shapes, what larger shapes can they form?  This is a fundamental tiling problem, which has many intriguing variations including packing and covering.  The commercial Eternity tiling puzzles have even offered millions of dollars to the first solver; while the first prize was claimed, the second puzzle has never been solved.  I’ll describe several mathematical results about packing and tiling, including computational intractability results that explain why they’re so hard (and perhaps why they’re so intriguing).  Our latest result in this area is that tiling the plane with just three polygons cannot be solved by any computer algorithm in finite time.  Packing and tiling also have surprising applications to computational origami design and polyhedron unfolding.   I’ll also describe some other fun ways to make artistic patterns of shapes, including Voronoi diagrams and QR codes.

There are many shapes in math that can serve as a point of inspiration.

The majority of my work stems around being inspired by some mathematical concept, using that concept to design origami, then applying that origami design to fashion.  A lot of this work is done by designing things very precisely, coding to do all the relevant calculations and generate the crease pattern, which is then scored before it can be folded, and would be essentially impossible to fold purely by hand using only reference folds.

Humans have shapes, and fashion is just art that can fit around a human shape.  Take a deep dive behind the scenes into the fabrication of some of the works featured in the Antiprisms exhibition.

As mathematics (and art) is a human endeavor, the shape of our well being also shapes the work we are able to create.  The type of work I’m able to create when I’m doing well versus when I’m in distress looks very different.  When I don’t have access to my usual equipment and tools, the nature of my design changes to what can be folded purely by hand, usually involving bisections and binary divisions instead of calculated irrational ratios.

As phones absorb more of our attention and generative AI supplies instant answers, what might we miss?  This talk invites us to pause, look up, and notice the beauty of mathematics all around us.  Together we will explore the symmetries in everyday shapes and patterns through the lens of group theory.  Although group theory is often introduced only in advanced courses, its core ideas can be conveyed visually and enjoyed by learners at any level.  Using puzzles drawn from a coloring book on group theory, Alex Berke will share how both analog and digital media can democratize access to “higher‑level math.”

What is the most efficient way to pack spheres into a container?  How about circles, pentagons, or heptagons?  Some shapes fill space efficiently — cubes leave no gaps — while others stubbornly waste room.  Which shapes pack best, and which are the worst offenders?  This talk explores the mathematics of packing problems, tracing classic results and current insights that reveal how much empty space different shapes inevitably leave behind.

MoMath participates in the ASTC Passport Program.  Please note that both the other museum and your place of residence must be at least 90 miles away from MoMath for the deal to be valid.

Thomas Li, Skateboarding in 4 Dimensions

The judges are excited to recognize the video, “Skateboarding in 4 Dimensions,” by Thomas Li from Clarksville, MD, for its originality in making the connection between skateboarding and rotations in three dimensions. The video is passionate and fun, and the judges loved its playfulness. The skewering of the apple and Thomas’s genuine enthusiasm—conveying his belief that quaternion multiplication is cool—added to the video’s charm. This engaging and educational video stands out for its creativity and the enthusiasm it brings to learning and applying complex mathematical concepts.

Click here to watch Thomas’s video.

Aria Makhija and Oma Makhija, PRIMES Card Game

The judges are thrilled to recognize “PRIMES Card Game,” by Aria and Oma Makhija from Florham Park, NJ, for its elegant and original design, presenting a challenging yet accessible experience for players of all ages. The game involves using four given numbers and the basic operations of arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) to make a target prime number at the center of the card, encouraging players to find multiple solutions when possible. This engaging game can be played solo or with multiple players, providing excellent practice in mental arithmetic and fostering an appreciation for the properties of prime numbers. The card design is particularly commendable, offering clear instructions and examples that enhance gameplay. The accompanying video is both fun and informative, brimming with great energy. PRIMES Card Game stands out not only for its simplicity but also for its ability to engage and entertain children and adults alike.

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