Rudenko Coaches U.S. Girls Team to First in International Math Competition

As a high school student in Ukraine, competitive mathematics puzzled Oleksandr "Alex" Rudenko. A top competitor, he would go back and read the solutions to challenging problems he was unable to solve. "Some of the solutions would surprise me so I would go back to understand how one can come up with a solution or idea. I would ask my friends and our instructors, and I would spend a lot of time thinking about those as well," he said. "So, when I graduated from high school, I decided to start coaching students to think in a way that unravels those hidden connections inside problems." When Rudenko moved to Pittsburgh to start his doctoral program in algorithms, combinatorics and optimization (ACO) at Carnegie Mellon University, he brought his coaching skills with him. Rudenko recently returned from Hungary and the 11th European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad. He served as the U.S. team leader along with deputy leader Rachel Zhang.