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. Together they coached Kaylee Ji, 16; Vivian Loh, 15; Jessica Wan, 15; and Isabella Zhu, 16.
The U.S. team took first place. Individually, Loh, Wan and Zhu were awarded gold medals and Ji earned silver.
Loh is the daughter of CMU Mathematical Sciences Professor Po-Shen Loh, who introduced Rudenko to CMU after meeting him at an international competition. At the time, Rudenko was coaching the Ukrainian team.
"Po-Shen Loh was the leader of the U.S. team and just an amazing person," Rudenko said. "He was the one who told me everything about ACO and was the reason I applied. I think that was such a miracle and I'm very, very grateful for that."