March 2026 Newsletter

Welcome to the Math and AI 4 Girls March newsletter! We're so excited to announce that our competition OPENS this Sunday, March 22. Read on to find more competition updates, fascinating new research in math & AI, and other mathematical opportunities!

Contributors: Fiona Liu, Melody Jing, Eva Lin, Michelle Zheng, Angie Huang, Sophia Jin

Table of Contents

1. About Us

2. Competition Update

3. Problem of the Month

4. Math and AI Research

5. Women in Math Story

6. Puzzle

7. Promotional

8. February Puzzle Solutions

About Us

Math and AI 4 Girls is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting young girls' interest in STEM. Each spring, we organize a competition designed to motivate students to engage with problem-solving through a challenging problem set and share their unique STEM stories through two thought-provoking essay prompts.

Any female students with U.S. residency younger than 15 years old are eligible to enter! (Past grand prize winners, however, are not eligible to re-enter.) Winners are recognized at an online awards ceremony during the summer, and award recipients will receive prizes, such as up to 1,000 dollars, merchandise from sponsors, a personalized award certificate, and more! If you know anyone who might be interested, please encourage them to stay connected via our website and join our Discord, where we offer more math competition opportunities and host activities such as problem-of-the-week!

MA4G Competition Update

It’s the time you’ve all been waiting for: the 2026 Math & AI 4 Girls Competition opens TOMORROW!! The MA4G Team is SO excited to see your submissions! As a reminder, the competition will close on April 26th, and you’ll have a chance to win prizes of up to $1000 as well as merch from our sponsors.

In the meantime, the communications team is now releasing our Question of the Day in our Discord server, along with the problem set team’s Problem of the Day and Problem of the Month, which you can find below! All of the details can be found on our website. Questions of the Day are designed to foster engagement between contestants, so feel free to discuss your answers and get to know each other under the “random” channel on Discord. In addition, if you’d like to access a previous edition of the newsletter, be sure to check out the Newsletter Archive on our website!  

As we get closer to April, stay tuned for upcoming updates, stay involved, help us spread the word to your communities, and remember to get your submissions in! You can find us on AoPS, Instagram, Discord, and our website.

POTM

Welcome to MA4G’s March Problem of the Month! Every issue of the newsletter, we’ll feature a math challenge for you to try. This month’s problem is below: 

Lovelace Middle School has four students, who are each reading a different book and finish at different times. These four students are Annie, Samantha, Aaniya, and Trent. Their last names are Lee, Zhang, Smith, and Singh (not respectively). They are either reading Catch-22, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 1984, or One Hundred Years of Solitude. Determine the correct full names of each student, which book they were reading, and the order they finished their books, based on the following clues:

1) Trent, who did not finish first or last, has the shortest last name.

2) Aaniya loves large numbers. The number in her book title is greater than sixty-seven.

3) Annie finished before Trent. Aaniya, who did not finish last, finished after Trent.

4) The student with last name Lee read Catch-22, while the student with the last name Smith read Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

5) Zhang's first name has the same number of letters as her book title does words.

Problem Credits: Eileen Wu

Submit your solutions here!

Everyone is encouraged to give the POTM a try, and we will be giving $50 at the end of the season to the eligible contestant with the highest cumulative POTM score! 

Good luck and have fun!

Math & AI Research

In the last issue of our newsletter, we explored how artificial intelligence has become a powerful tool by assisting mathematicians with writing proofs. This month, we'll focus on AI’s ability to perform autoformalization, the automated process of translating mathematics written in natural language (the explanations and arguments found in research papers) into precise formal logic that can be checked and verified by computer-based proof assistants. Researchers have demonstrated this capability using the work of Marya Viazovska, whose Fields Medal–winning research on sphere packing was partially translated by AI into a machine-verifiable formal proof ([2205.12615] Autoformalization with Large Language Models). 

1. Gemini Deep Think: Redefining the Future of Scientific Research 

After reaching Gold-medal standard at the International Math Olympiad in 2025, Google researchers have since expanded their Gemini Deep Think model to solve more complex research questions. Their math research agent, Aletheia, utilizes an "interactive process of generating and revising solutions” by incorporating a verifier to check for flaws in candidate solutions before the final output.

Notably, Aletheia has already been responsible for significant AI-guided or entirely autonomous research. For example, Feng 2026 ([2601.23245] Eigenweights for arithmetic Hirzebruch Proportionality) documents the work of an AI Agent built upon Gemini Deep Think, which employs tools from algebraic combinatorics to determine eigenweights for all classical groups, a novel research result. An Aletheia model was also used to solve some of the Erdős problems discussed in last month’s newsletter. Beyond mathematics, Aletheia has reenergized research in computer science, machine learning optimization, economics, physics, and many more fields, combining advanced tools in unexpected ways to overcome impediments that have curbed progress by human researchers for years.

      2. AI Proof Verification: Gauss Tackles 24D 

In 2022, Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska was awarded a Fields Medal, widely regarded as the highest and most prestigious honor in mathematics, for her research on the sphere-packing problem. The sphere-packing problem asks, how densely can identical circles, spheres, etc., be packed in n-dimensional space? We already had answers for 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional packing, but what about higher dimensions?

In 2016, Viazovska used (quasi-)modular forms (see: A Quick Introduction to the Theory of (Quasi)modular Forms) to find and prove the E8 and Leech lattice packing patterns for 8-dimensional and 24-dimensional, both of which have since been applied in error-correcting codes for smartphones and space probes. 

Since November 2025, the AI startup Math, Inc. had been using its Gauss model to work on the sphere-packing problem, proving several foundational concepts. This year, Gauss autoformalized the proof for the 8-dimensional case in just 5 days, where it would have taken existing tools over 6 months. Then, in just 2 weeks, using the original paper and other autonomous literature searches, Gauss autoformalized the 24-dimensional case.

Women in Math Research

Every month, we share a story about a figure who reflects the mission of MA4G. This month, we chronicle the journey of Katherine Johnson, whose passion for mathematics helped shape the early years of space exploration and inspired generations of young women in STEM.

Katherine Johnson grew up in West Virginia with an exceptional talent for numbers. Her mathematical ability was clear from a young age, and she began high school when she was only ten years old. She later graduated from West Virginia State College with degrees in mathematics and French. In 1953, Johnson joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which later became NASA, where she worked as a mathematician performing complex calculations for engineers working on space missions.

Johnson’s calculations played a crucial role in the success of many historic missions. She helped determine the flight path for the first American astronaut in space, Alan Shepard, and later verified the orbital calculations for John Glenn’s mission, the first U.S. flight to orbit Earth. Her work also contributed to the Apollo 11 mission that successfully sent astronauts to the Moon.

Despite facing both racial and gender discrimination during her career, Johnson’s extraordinary mathematical skill earned her recognition and respect from her colleagues. Over her decades-long career, she authored or coauthored numerous research reports and received many honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Katherine Johnson’s story demonstrates the power of perseverance, curiosity, and confidence in mathematics. Through her groundbreaking work, she showed how mathematical thinking can solve complex real-world problems and help humanity reach new frontiers. Like Johnson, Math and AI 4 Girls encourages young women to explore mathematics, pursue challenging problems, and use their skills to shape the future.

Fun Fact: Katherine Johnson's story has been made into the brilliant movie Hidden Figures, based on the book of the same name!

Puzzle

Our puzzle this month is a Women in STEM Crossword. Try it out to test your knowledge and learn about women who made pioneering contributions in math and science. We hope you enjoy!

Promotional

Every month, we spotlight an organization that shares our mission of supporting girls in STEM. This month, we’re featuring INTEGIRLS, a global 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to empowering female and non-binary students to explore their passion for math. To learn more, visit their website at https://www.integirls.org/.

Thank you very much to our current and past sponsors: Jane Street, DE Shaw & Co, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hudson River Trading, AI4All, Automation Anywhere, and J.P. Morgan Chase. If you’re interested in sponsoring us, please reach out!

February Puzzle Solutions

Easy: 3×(4+6-2) 

Medium: (6+4+5)*8×(2+3)

Hard: 8÷(3-(8÷3))