The Estimathon

The Adam Smith Center, together with a dedicated team of organizers, including Jason Hausenloy (Education Officer), Abhay Malik, and Tanay Suresh (both students at UWCSEA), proudly hosted the first-ever Estimathon in Singapore. The competition aimed to inspire the next generation of problem solvers by introducing them to Fermi Estimation, a powerful technique for estimating complex, real-world values.

Held at the UWCSEA East Campus, the Estimathon attracted approximately 100 high school students from various local and international schools. The collaborated in teams of three to four to solve fifteen Fermi Estimation questions. (See more photos here.)

These intriguing problems ranged from estimating the number of dump trucks needed to empty Mount Everest to determining the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet. These problems were designed to encourage critical and creative thinking.

The winning team from Raffles Institution, consisting of Shrimay Bikash Saikia, Hui Zhou Rong Isaiah (Xu Zhourong), Liu Yuchen, and Abhyuday Kushwaha, exhibited such proficiency in their solutions that we had to verify that they had no external assistance!

In addition to intellectual stimulation, the Estimathon fostered camaraderie among participants. A generous amount of pizza was catered for a fun and relaxed atmosphere. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants has reinforced our belief in the value of such events.

The success of Estimathon this year serves as an excellent foundation for the upcoming launch of Singapore's Junior Economic Society. This new initiative aims to continue engaging and inspiring young minds in economics, problem-solving, and critical thinking. We look forward to hosting similar events in the future, learning from the feedback and insights gleaned this round.