The 2008-2009 Math Olympiad and Problem Solving Training Program has began.  The 10-week fall session runs from September 8 to November 15.  Weekday classes are held at UCI University Tower, 4199 Campus Drive, Suite 550, Irvine.  Saturday classes are held at Concordia University, Irvine.  

 

Some of the classes are still accepting new students.  Interested families should visit www.AvidAcademy.com and click on the button BookNow to schedule a qualifying exam via our online scheduling application.

• 1. Harvard
• 2. Princeton
• 3. Yale
• 4. MIT
• 4. Stanford
• 6. Caltech
• 6. University of Pennsylvania
• 8. Columbia
• 8. Duke University
• 8. University of Chicago 

• 49th International Mathematical Olympiad, Spain: United States International Math Olympiad (IMO) Team competed against 101 countries and 535 students and again finished in 3rd place behind China and Russia.  The team received four gold medals and two silver medals. 
• 39th International Physics Olympiad, Vietnam: The U.S. Physics Team finished in 5th place behind China, Taiwan, Korea and India with four gold medals and one silver.
• 40th International Chemistry Olympiad, Hungary: The U.S. Chemistry Team won three bronze medals and one silver medal.
• 18th International Biology Olympiad, India: The U.S. Biology Team received four gold medals.
• 2008 Mathematical Olympiad for Girls, China:  The United States team was selected as a part of the USAMO competition and trained at the Math Olympiad Summer Program (MOP).  The U.S. Team won two gold, one silver, and five bronze medals.
  

For more information, please read LA Times article: College Board to debut an 8th-grade PSAT exam.

 

LHC is a giant circular tunnel stretches from 27 km under the land between France and Switzerland.  Hadron is one of the types of particle that make up an atom.  These particles will be propelled by giant magnets around the tunnel circuit at almost the speed of light in the opposite directions.  When they collide, the resulting explosion will create 100,000 times more heat than the sun.

 

Particle Physicists have only discovered 1/4 of the particles that made up of an atom.  One of the not-yet-discovered particle is called Higgs boson, also known as God's Particle.  One of the goals of LHC is to find Higgs boson, which will help to establish a unifying theory providing one explanation for the forces at work in the natural world, from the nucleus of an atom to the movements of the planets.

 

For high resolution pictures of the Large Hadron Collider, please read Large Hadron Collider nearly ready.  For other information on CERN and LHC, visit the official CERN website: European Organization for Nuclear Research.  For more indepth reports on the LHC, please read the four chapter report on MSNBC: