By Alexandra Torres Munoz, UConn ’25 (CAHNR) (CLAS)
On March 17, 2026, the UConn ECE Program and Math Faculty Coordinators launched a new event—and (hopefully!) a future annual tradition—the UConn ECE Integration Bee. After an initial attempt to host the event in 2025 was canceled due to scheduling challenges, the first-ever iteration this spring went un-BEE-lievably well. Approximately 60 students from 5 high schools attended, and we hope to see even more join the competition next year.
This event was inspired by UConn’s annual Integration Bee, hosted each fall by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Graduate Student chapter of the Math Department. The competition is open to all undergraduate students to tackle some tricky integrals and to earn some cool prizes! The event is open to anyone, but it is strongly advised that anyone participating has completed (at least) Math 1132Q: Calculus II.
We decided to adapt this event into a friendly competition open to any UConn ECE Math students that are currently enrolled in Calculus II, and we hosted the event during UConn’s spring break to make campus travel a bit easier (besides, we figured the participants wouldn’t mind a day off school to go do extra hard math problems, right? …right?).
The competition began with a written qualifying round open to all student attendees. The top scoring students were then invited to compete in the first round (the highest score was a 5 out of 10, which was truly impressive!), where they worked individually at the whiteboard, competing in groups of six at a time, to solve staggeringly difficult integrals. The first to finish a problem correctly earned a point, and the best one or two students from each group moved to the next round.
The final round was a head-to-head match between Chidubem from Fairchild Wheeler High School and Tommy from Trumbull High School. Despite a few questions stumping both competitors, we were able to crown a champion!
Trophies were awarded for the top three finishers—first place went to Chidubem from Fairchild Wheeler High School, second place to Tommy from Trumbull High School, and third place to Ted from Trumbull High School—along with some awesome medals for the top 10 participants (which hopefully helped take away the STING of defeat!).
Thank you so very much to the amazing staff in the UConn ECE office for helping us to organize and run the event and thank you to all the instructors and students who helped us make this first Integration Bee a resounding success. We look forward to hosting the event again in March 2027! Will the integrals be even more diabolical- you’ll have to find out then!