Our students participated in the 2025 edition of Math en jeans in Chicago ! A memorable experience for all of them. Thank you to Math teacher Nicolas LEGATELOIS for his precious insights!

“Math en Jeans” is a mathematics research program offered to students from Gr8 to high school at the Lycée for the past 8 years.

The concept is as follows: in teams of 2, 3, or 4, students choose a complex problem proposed by French researchers in mathematics. Over the course of about six months, from October to March, they work on their problem during workshops held once every two weeks from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. during lunchtime. They are supervised by a mathematics teacher who guides them. They also have the opportunity to meet with our reference researcher, Gilles Bailly-Maitre,a lecturer at the University of La Rochelle, via Zoom once or twice.

Examples of topics:

On an 8 x 8 chessboard, what is the maximum number of queens that can be placed such that none can attack another? And on an n x n chessboard (n = 9, 10, etc.) / same question with knights.

We have two colors. In how many ways can we color the faces of a regular octahedron? (The answer is 23 if you'd like to look for it!!) And with 3, 4, ..., n colors?

 

Students learned a lot and were really good at presenting their research.

You'll find their videos below.

 

 

 

Schedule of the trip :

Day 1 : Arrival

Day 2: Morning: Architectural tour on the Chicago River - Picnic at Millennium Park - Visit to the Museum of Optical Illusions (MIC) - Sunset ascent of the Hancock Tower

Day 3: Start of the conference: Move to LFC (French Lycée of Chicago)
Morning: Opening of the conference with speeches from the Head of School, the consulate representative, and the researchers present - Mathematical orientation race around Chicago
Afternoon: Meet the groups and work on presentations - Conference by researcher Jean Paul Delahaye on tiling
Evening: Pizza for dinner, a "Chicago specialty"

Day 4: Second day of the conference
Morning: Start of the presentations - Conference by Gilles Bailly Maitre on very large numbers
Afternoon: Continuation of the presentations
Evening: Dinner at the lycée followed by a Dance Party until 10 PM

Day 5 (Sunday, 23rd):
Morning: End of the conferences
Lunch at the school followed by the closing ceremony: Speech by the Head of School of LFC