Integration Bee

The Integration Bee is an annual integral calculus competition pioneered in 1981 by Andy Bernoff, an applied mathematics student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Similar contests are administered each year in many universities and colleges across the United States and in a number of other countries.

Rules and conventions
Prospective participants may first need to take a qualifying exam. The contest is then arranged in a manner similar to a sports tournament, with those who incorrectly evaluate integrals after a certain number of trials are eliminated. Constants of integration may be ignored, but the final answer must be in reduced form and in terms of the original variable. At some institutions, such as MIT, contestants will evaluate assigned integrals on a chalkboard in front of the audience. In some others, such as the University of Connecticut, they may do so in their seats on paper. Contestants may either be all students from the hosting institution (such as MIT or the University of California, Berkeley), undergraduates only (such as at the University of Connecticut), or undergraduates and high-school students (such as at the University of North Texas), or all university students as well as high school students from the same area (such as West Virginia University). At the University of Dayton (Ohio), students compete in teams of two.

Participants are expected to be familiar with the standard methods of integration.

U.S. competitions
Integration Bee contests continue to be held at MIT, with the champion awarded a hat carrying the title, "Grand Integrator." Integration Bee contests are now regularly conducted in major American colleges and universities.

In the South, they are the University of Florida, Florida Polytechnic University, West Virginia University, Louisiana Tech University, and the University of North Texas.

In the Northeast, they are the University of Scranton, Connecticut College, Central Connecticut State University, Columbia University, and the State University of New York.

In the Midwest, they are the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Prairie State College (Illinois), the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and the University of Dayton (Ohio).

In the West, they are Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University, Fresno State University, Cosumnes River College, the University of California, Berkeley, various other institutions in California, and Oregon State University.

The Louisiana/Mississippi chapter of the Mathematical Association of America is responsible for holding the Integration Bee in these two states and the American Mathematical Society at the University of Connecticut.

Non-U.S. competitions
A Philippine integration competition (often shortened as Integ Bee) was originally held four times at the University of the Philippines Diliman, located in Quezon City, and sponsored by UP Physics Association (UPPA). Subsequently, the competition was scaled up to allow undergraduates of other Philippine universities to participate. One typical event in 2014 at the Philippine National Institute of Physics, allowed contestants to test their accuracy and speed, capability in mental solving, and mastery in evaluating integrals. The winner received a cash prize of 5,000 Philippine pesos (about €100 or US$113), whilst two runners-up received 1,000 pesos (about €20 or US$22).

In the United Kingdom, the Integration Bee is held at the University of Cambridge, which welcomes participants from other British universities, including University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Durham University and University of Warwick. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, the contest is held at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.

In Poland, the Integration Bee is adopted at University of Warsaw, with the name The Grand Integration Tournament UW (pol. Wielki Turniej Całkowania UW). It has been organised annually since 2022 by three Faculty Student Councils (Mathematics, Physics and MISMaP). The running traditions are 3D printed medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, which are printed by Faculty of Physics UW in Makerspace@UW, and the use of Hagoromo chalk.

In Switzerland, the Integration Bee was held at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne for the first time in 2023.

In Austria, the Integration Bee Vienna was organized for the first time by two students Maksym Czarniecki & Samuel Krech in May 2024 and hosted at the faculty of mathematics of the University of Vienna.

Impact
While integral calculus is no longer an actively researched topic in mathematics, there is some correlation between success in the integration bee and success in other areas of mathematics. On a more individual level the winners of the integration bee are held in high honor by their colleagues and professors alike.