A teenage girl in China performed exceptionally well in a math competition, beating not only AI but also students from prestigious universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Princeton.
The outpouring of support and shock for the 17-year-old fashion design student was sparked by her humble academic background. Vocational schools in China are not known for academic rigor, and of the thousands of participants, only Jiang Ping was from a vocational school, state media reported.
Jiang placed 12th in the latest preliminary round of the Alibaba Global Math Competition, a popular and highly competitive math competition, and was one of 801 global finalists in the final eight-hour test held on Saturday.
The preliminary round ended last Saturday, lasted 48 hours and was conducted online with multiple choice and essay length questions.
In a post on Chinese social media platform Weixin, organizers said there were no AI teams qualified to advance to the finals.
Jiang’s underdog victory earned him passionate supporters. Her hashtag for it had 17 million views as of Saturday. “Anyone can be a dark horse in a life that is not defined by others,” the hashtag reads in Chinese.
This contest includes questions on applied mathematics, probability, and algebra.
Jiang, a fashion design student from eastern China’s Jiangsu province, and her performance impressed several Chinese universities, who congratulated her on social media.
“Praise to Zhang Ping! “Anyone who has a dream is amazing!” This is a post posted on Weibo by Zhejiang University, a prestigious university in eastern China.
Final results will be announced in August and winners will be awarded up to $30,000.
Studying advanced mathematics “gives me a desire to explore,” she said in an interview published by organizers. The interview garnered more than four million views, with most viewers expressing surprise at the results and questioning whether it was real.
“People who can recognize beauty in math and physics are usually at the next level,” one user wrote. “We must protect and nurture them.”
Fans representing Jiang Zemin’s rising star even visited her parents’ home in a village in Jiangsu Province on China’s east coast, bringing alcohol and money as gifts to show their support. Her picture hung on the wall of her hometown mall.
Jiang also defeated his teacher Wang Runqiu, who placed 125th in the competition.
State media outlet People’s Daily reported that Wang encouraged her to participate in the competition and said, “I want to help young people as much as possible and let them know that they can have a different future.”
Jiang told the organizers that math was her “hobby” and that she didn’t think she was even qualified to enter the competition. She now plans to study at a good university, she said.
“If studying fashion design is plan A, exploring the world of mathematics is plan B,” she said. “I wish I could see my plan B.”
Although she scored high on her high school entrance exam, the Communist Party secretary, who currently attends a vocational school, told state media that she went there because her older sister and good friends were also students at that school.
The competition launched in 2018 and is open to math enthusiasts of all backgrounds, and this year was the first competition open to AI teams.
“No matter what the future holds, this interest will continue,” Jiang Zemin said.
This story originally appeared on: NBCNews.com.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com.
