Highly Gifted Graduate of HTL Spengergasse, Yimin Ge

 

Masters his First Year as a Mathematics Student at Trinity College, Cambridge, with Outstanding Results – A Delightful Balance Sheet of an Eventful Year

These lines – written, in accordance with the subject, in English – are not just a proud report on the achievements of an individual juvenile intellectual personality, but also may inspire and challenge others presently climbing their educational ladder – particularly at a technical school – to reflect on where their real talents are and on what is possible to make a related dream come true, while revealing a glance into the everyday life of one of the world’s most influencing educational institutions.

As reported earlier on this platform (http://www.htl.at/no_cache/de/home/news/news/article/htl-wien-5-spengergasse-wurde-university-of-cambridge-step-testcenter-fuer-mathematik.html), just graduating from HTL Spengergasse (http://www.spengergasse.at), mathematics genius Yimin Ge (http://www.yimin-ge.com), after having decided to aspire studying at the venerable Trinity College (http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk) of Cambridge University (http://www.cam.ac.uk), had been about to face the so-called STEP Test examinations 2 & 3 at the, back then, by his former teacher Karl Wodnar newly instituted Cambridge STEP Test Centre (http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/step) at HTL Spengergasse in the summer of 2009. Needless to say, he passed both of these formidable assessments, taking place worldwide every year at the same date and time, of course with excellent success! The then following year at Cambridge shall be the subject of the subsequent short report.

Studies on the well separated fields of Pure & Applied Mathematics at Trinity are organized in terms which correspond to trimesters and – according to old tradition – are named Michaelmas, Lent and Easter Term respectively, the first of which in the first academic year is about Differential Equations, Vectors & Matrices, Numbers & Sets and finally Groups, while the second one covers Vector Calculus, Dynamics & Relativity, Probability and Analysis. The third term more or less is reserved for exam preparation, but it is generally possible to choose additional topics in each term, not necessarily supervised in the Trinity specific way as the prescribed regular ones – some aspects of the prosperous supervision system shall be detailed below. As we know him, at the latest by now, Yimin couldn’t help but add some more to the already quite exertive regular program, Groups, Rings & Modules in Lent and Metric & Topological Spaces as well as Variational Principles for the Easter Term.

As for the regular lectures, there exists a very efficient, individually adapted system of supervisions: Two students of estimated equal level are assigned a personal supervisor of excellent academic reputation, who poses and discusses sophisticated problems related to the specific lecture in question to only those two persons every two weeks. Just to give an impression of the standards we are talking about: rumour persists, that sometimes not even the supervisor is sure about the existence of a solution along with some of the assigned tasks – learning by the irresolvable, among real educational insiders a well approved, but as yet too rarely employed method to stimulate students’ creativity and to reveal the potentially hidden genius.

In addition to the supervisions in mathematical context, there exists also one for most of the other aspects of studies life: Every student has his/her Director of Studies, responsible  for his/her academic  wellbeing, and  a Tutor, who usually is not at all involved as a teacher in the specifically student selected Tripos (= studies programme), nevertheless being a long-serving College-affiliated and thus -familiar scholar, who takes care of several ambient questions around studies, like housing, financial affairs and sometimes even personal problems, if existent. It may happen, that a Tutor’s allocated students find themselves in a meeting in her or his office and enjoy a glass or two among their colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere once in a while.

Legendary also, the magnificent dinners with vintage wines and pheasant, which are primarily celebrated among members of staff at times, but there is the rule, that students might be invited by some honourable academic personality, e.g. if his/her studying success is notable. You can guess that Yimin already enjoyed such an exclusive invitation.

There is also a fund devoted to Life Enhancing Activities for the benefit of students, also outside their immediate field of study. In the spirit of mens sana in corpore sano and the enlargement of horizon one might obtain financial support, for instance for music lessons or ski training. The more you can expect generous support for the attendance of international competitions, where you represent your University. Clearly, even in his first year, Yimin didn’t miss the chance and took part in the International Mathematical Competition in Bulgaria (http://www.imc-math.org.uk ), again – as we would expect – with very satisfying success.

Thus, on the whole, the Cambridge philosophy, roughly spoken, is as follows: Very strict access restrictions and high level demands, but once you are in the boat and prove passionate ambition in your field, you’ll gain plenty of any kind of individual support, so as to finally keep alive a myth of veritable excellence for the institution since centuries, at the same time creating a unique beneficial atmosphere among the community of students.

Speaking of boats and aged myths: there is a strongly pronounced tradition of involvement of students in College life also outside lecture times strengthening the feeling of togetherness and awareness of membership in such a unique academic institution. Of course you cannot seriously discuss life in Cambridge without having a glance at the century-old intense cultivation of rowing. In the photograph shown, Yimin is the second from left, and generally enthuses very much about rowing, which provides an adequate counterweight to the many hours of more or less sitting still, filled with mental strain and sometimes stress situations.  Qualification of teams is based on so-called Bumps Races (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumps_race). If a team in a boat through sufficient speed succeeds in intentionally – but usually moderately – touching the one in front of it, then the latter is graded down in its rank in favour of the beating team, which thereby proceeds in the starting sequence for the next time by one boat.

If this didn’t go beyond the scope of these lines, a great deal could be told about some more very British habits such as the chess board patterns of the generally very cultivated lawns, on which to step – for ordinary mortals – means something like a sacrilege, except you belong to the elitist circle of the privileged Fellows (http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=321 ), who are – among other things – allowed to set their feet on the holy green ground, but for this time we want to leave it at that.

But even a passionate juvenile scholar, who likes to strain his brain, needs to grant his mind some rest and new impressions of life outside the world of mathematics. Thus, after the end of this rich first academic year in Cambridge, Yimin very much enjoyed travelling through quite a large portion of Europe by InterRail, a holiday he had deferred several times before in favour of his studies.

Even in the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture (http://www.bmukk.gv.at ) the reputation and progress of this exceptionally successful young mathematician is being traced and highly appreciated. Not only did Education Minister Dr Claudia Schmied personally congratulate Yimin for top rankings in several mathematical competitions, likewise Ministerial Councillor Gabriele Winkler-Rigler heading the school-supervision of Spengergasse, as well as Principal Wolfgang Hickel attentively follow the progress of the ingenious youth with vivid and supporting interest.

Lately, a letter from Cambridge Fellow Dr Hugh E. M. Hunt, Yimin’s Director of Studies at Trinity found its way to Principal Hickel’s desk, stating that

“I am pleased to inform you that your former pupil, Yimin Ge, has been awarded a First Class for Part 1A of the Mathematical Tripos. We are delighted to have such an excellent student.”

As Ge’s former local mentor Karl Wodnar at Spengergasse, who invested many hours of ‘leisure time’ in helping to pave Yimin’s way to Cambridge, only recently pointed out speaking to Science Minister Prof Dr Beatrix Karl on the occasion of an event related to the so-called MINT (http://www.mint.at/content) campaign initiated by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research (http://www.bmwf.gv.at), where outstanding HTL Spengergasse originated student projects (e.g. http://www.roboat.at) were presented and which generally tries to enforce education towards more competence in the cluster of fields of Mathematics, Informatics, Science and Engineering:

“Nothing is worse about technical education than to breed engineers without horizon!”

This statement may serve as an attempt to indicate our high degree of responsibility in the consciousness of which our contemporary daily technical teaching should be viewed and also implicitly encompasses the confession to the unconditional promotion of the highly-gifted. Fortunately a lucent, living example, that this can be more as a merely flowery phrase, is – among others – our Yimin Ge, whom we wish by now and for all future the well deserved fruitful continuation of his exceptional intellectual career.  All the best to you further on, Yimin!

Acknowledgement: While bearing the sole responsibility for these lines, the author gratefully mentions the valuable help of Susanna Häring and Yimin Ge.

complete report