Photo: Jared Charney
A good math problem is like a walled, secret garden, according to Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) head and MIT Professor Asu Ozdaglar, who was addressing an audience of middle and high school female-identifying mathematics contestants at the 14th annual Math Prize for Girls (MP4G) event.
“Many people walking around the outside never attempt to glimpse at the other side of what seems to be a high brick wall,” she says. “Worst of all, many students are told that the garden of math is not for them — that they are not the right kind of person to succeed at math. We know that more girls are given this message than boys.”
The 240 girls in the audience were able to find the keys to open the gate to that garden, in part thanks to the growing sisterhood of the math equation that gathers annually at MIT. It’s not just a math contest. MP4G alumnae have formed an expanding network to debunk gender stereotypes within STEM fields, and to help pass the keys to that garden along to a whole new generation of girls from the United States and Canada.
Read more in the MIT News.