Name: María de los Ángeles Delgado Álvarez (María Delgado)
Age: 14 years old (25-05-2006)
Country, city: Huesca, Aragón, Spain
School: Salesianos Huesca
Grade: 10th grade (I’ve skipped one grade due to high IQ and quick ability to understand.)
__ I was born in Medellín, Colombia, but I live in Spain since I was more a less 5 years old
1. What is your role as a current Mathematician?
I am currently a 10th grade student at the Salesianos Huesca school in Spain. I study all the subjects of the Spanish educational system, as my classmates do, but my teachers have been providing me with material and help to be able to learn more deeply what I am passionate about. Currently, as a child who wants to study mathematics, I want to teach others that mathematics is not as difficult as it seems, and that they can help us solve problems in everyday life by applying it to other fields. I want to show that you can gain logical and abstract reasoning by solving problems that do not have to do with things as complicated as integral, and it only takes imagination. I hope to be able to tell my story to everyone since being small I can understand many people. I want to do research focused on algebra right now, and maybe in the future I can try to solve the problems of the millennium or discover something new!
2. What has inspired your love of the maths community?
I would like to start by talking about motivation, because I would say that it is one of the bases to be able to feel comfortable and want to advance more and more in a field. Without motivation you would see that nothing makes sense, but with just one spark you can ignite and do several great things. My passion for mathematics started at a very young age, but I distinguish between two phases. I have always been curious and want to go beyond what is normally taught, and that happens to me with all subjects.
My abstraction and logic to reason problems has always been wide, I loved to solve those typical problems of toothpicks or pyramids, cubes and others! A curiosity is that I have a large collection of Rubik's cubes. Well, the case... Back in grade 7 there was a phase change, which in Spain is called primary and secondary. The teachers changed and so did the demands. I met my mathematics teacher Elena Mengual, a doctorate in mathematics and a great person. From the first moment my mind was completely opened and I saw how a wide range of possibilities opened up before me, it was a unique experience to be able to hear someone explaining mathematics, knowing that it was an elementary algebra class. Time went by and he saw my potential and an Olympics for people older than me were coming up and he said, Why don't you try it? and there between ... I reached the final, it was held at the University of Zaragoza, and one of the moments that most marked me was May 11, 2019. I did not win, but the experience was the most important ... He realized how much he could learn, that a lot of concepts caught my attention, that math is great! From there, in one month of the summer, I learned all the algebra syllabi until university in a single month and I also learned geometry and trigonometry, and from there, I learned several things at the same time. My motivation and my role model is my math teacher, Elena Mengual, and I will not tire of saying it, without her I would not be here right now.
Also, the fact of seeing that mathematics can describe so many things, that it can help, you can enter them and not finish, that you could achieve something that has applications in other fields and thus help humanity, it is incredible, to know that if you investigate you can get amazing results, or things never seen before is exciting!
3. What do you most enjoy about your role?
What I like most about my role as a mathematician is both the little ones and the older ones look at me, but I don't mean as if I was superior, if not as someone to follow. The little ones realize that I know a lot, and that with effort they can get to do great things, and the older ones are amazed by my age and my great passion. I also really like being able to show others how I solve and think about problems or exercises and also explain concepts or topics to them; I believe that teaching apart from the fact that you learn better, you begin to empathize much more, and see what the problems to be solved would be. I like to see that there are people who feel passion, and who ask for my help or advice to be able to move forward. Above all, meeting new people and the opportunities that are offered to you are magnificent.
4. What are the common misconceptions in Mathematics that you believe need to be overcome?
Mathematics has a predefined stereotype, which should change as soon as possible. It is said that they are boring, that there are many numbers, many operations and that they do not make sense. If we have had this in our heads since we were little, there is a problem. We can't pretend that we like everything, but at least give it a chance to see all that we can learn. They can become difficult at the time, yes, but you always have alternatives to solve this problem, for example, ask someone, or approach it in another way, or search in books, ask various opinions ... I would also like to say that creativity could be awakened to solve problems from a young age, and they themselves try to discover what others have already discovered, so they have the possibility to see if they like it, or if it catches their attention.
5. What defines you other than maths?
I am a girl who defines her main hobby as studying. Above all mathematics, but I also really like physics, and within it my favorite fields are quantum physics, astrophysics and nuclear physics. I also like programming and neuroscience. I like to investigate and write; I am thinking of writing several books! Apart from the world of studying, I am a basketball player in my city team, and I play as a point guard. I like to do crafts, like cards and I have a lot of patience, so it’s like a perfect combination! I draw and paint different types of art. Finally, I love talking with people that can give their different points of view in a lot of subjects.
6. Any inspirational role models/ quotes for you
My role model is in the 2nd question, Elena Mengual.
My father and my mother, both engineers, are also important for me; Isaías and Carolina.
All my teachers at my school are incredibly supportive.
The Coding School and Qubit by Qubit Team are super important to me; especially: Kiera, Rachel and Kiley.
And my personal/favourites quotes are:
Eternal neuron explosion
Make possible the impossible
Get as high as a Meteorite
Additional areas of María's achievements:
- I participated in the Aragón Mathematical Olympiad of 2 ESO being in 1 ESO in 2019. I went to the final, held on May 11, 2019, and it was a fantastic experience.
- I am in a Quantum Computing course offered by The Coding School, Qubit By Qubit, MIT, IBM, Oxford and many more universities, in which there are people from all over the world, currently we are more than 8000 students. For my part, I am known in the course for being one of the smallest (since it requires a level of linear algebra, probability, trigonometry and physics), and I am also known in said course for creating posters that make a brief summary of what we have been giving over the weeks. Besides, my notes are also helpful, and I receive positive comments; both from the management team and from the other students.
- I am a Spanish student ambassador for Technovation, a program that awakens the smallest minds by teaching them the field of technology through a program that they have to follow to find their goal.
- Featured in the newspaper by Technovation, and by the MIT Course.
- My school has made me an article about the MIT course and my mathematics instagram account: @ sig.mathes
- Aragón Radio has interviewed me for the MIT course, and for my passion for mathematics
- In social networks: Instagram: @sig.mathes (with more than 1000 followers) @studywmeteorite (with more than 400 followers)
Twitter: @wmeteorite
- Last year, I did a work at school on Mathematics and Coronavirus, which was later chosen to be published on my school page.
In case you want to see a place where I have all the links organized: https://linktr.ee/meteoritee