Mark Saengrungkongka, a first-year MIT undergraduate student, stood at the blackboard and explained his solution to a math problem similar to the ones that might appear on the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition, a prestigious annual math competition for college students in the United States and Canada administered by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). After he finished presenting his proof, the class gave a round of applause. “That was a very nice solution,” math professor Yufei Zhao told the class. It was a few weeks into the semester, and…
