Updates about Mathcamp 2025
Mathcamp 2025 was held June 29–August 3 at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
From Ohama, Nebraska to Edmonton, Alberta; from Limassol, Cyprus to Karad, India, this year’s Mathcampers came together from 23 U.S. states, 5 Canadian provinces, and 10 other countries. There were 46 girls, 4 non-binary students, and 70 boys; 49 alums, and 71 fantastic new campers, selected through a competitive application process (from close to 1000 applicants!) based on their mathematical and personal qualities and fit with Mathcamp’s mission.
Math at Mathcamp 2025
Mathcampers begin each summer by talking with their academic advisor, whose role is to help you answer the question: What kind of academic experience do you want to create this summer? The possibilities aren’t endless, but they’re vast: from "Elements of a Classical Chess Engine" to "The Other Analytic Number Theory (p-adics)" to "The Hales–Jewett Theorem," students had over 100 classes to choose from. (You can read the schedules and descriptions here.) Here is just one example, from Mathcamp instructor Della:
Spotlight on a Class: Computing Past Infinity
Usually when you run an algorithm, you expect it to finish at some point and tell you the answer. But what if instead it continued running forever? Could you still get information out if it by looking at the steps it took? Can it output an answer after running forever? If the algorithm still isn’t done after running forever, can we run it some more?
We’ll explore two algorithms that can take infinite time, and see how all of these questions can have affirmative answers. Along the way, we’ll encounter fun characters including continued fractions and ordinal numbers.
The Project Fair is when our work outside classroom hours comes together. Students worked on projects ranging from "Insolvability of degree 5 polynomials" to "Project Euler in Google Sheets" to "Write Logic Puzzles" and presented their work to their fellow students in a joyous culmination to the summer.
Outside the Classroom at Mathcamp 2025
As always, our schedule was packed with field trips and activities. Weekend classics included ice skating, a visit to Powell’s bookstore, contra dancing, and caving. But the program was bursting with creativity, from silliness ("Why gnomes should unionize") to mischevious ("Revenge Assembly") to delicious ("choose your own adventure crepes") to downright impressive: the campers organized a recurring 6:30am frisbee practice.
Each year, the staff design a day-long Puzzle Hunt, heralded as one of our best events. This year, the letters of MCSP were stolen! Solvers recruited the legendary Detective Poirot to help untangle this mystery. For a challenge, try to solve the puzzle below, entitled "Counterparts." (If you're ready to dive in: play the whole Hunt online, here.)
A huge thank-you to everybody who made Mathcamp 2025 a success!
It truly takes a village: our students and staff, new and returning, come together to build the Mathcamp community, and to dive deeply into beautiful, challenging mathematical ideas. The alchemy is magical.
Moreover: Mathcamp is free for families with household incomes of $100,000 and below, with a sliding scale for middle-income families. We also provide generous travel grants as needed. Our finanical aid budget comes the program’s supportive alumni, families, and friends – you!
Thank you to our students, staff, and supporters for a wonderful Mathcamp 2025!
