Mr Nicholas Soh Zhan Yi, a Year 2 student from Lee Kong Chian School of Business, has done SMU proud by winning the Youth Prize in an international essay competition administered by The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences’ MathEd Forum in partnership with Vretta, a Toronto-based educational media studio. The cash prize of CAD1500 was sponsored by The American Statistical Association.

Named “The Taming of Chance Story Competition”, participants were posed the question “What would our world be like if the Normal Curve had never been discovered?” The Normal Curve refers to a very common continuous probability distribution.

Ms Rosie Ching, Senior Lecturer of Statistics at School of Economics, helped to refine and improve Nicholas’ story entitled “The Organisation”. It tells of the protagonist who, during his work at a clothing factory, discovers the phenomenon of the normal distribution and consults The Organisation in hopes of seeing a better tomorrow.

Entries were judged on each story's insightfulness, cultural impact, as well as the storyteller's ability to draw attention to the competition question.

Rosie said, “Storytelling by itself is already a difficult art. For Nicholas to incorporate statistical concepts he learned in my class into his original story is no mean feat. I am thrilled for Nicholas, in his receiving international recognition for his imaginative and creative effort.”

On the inspiration for his story, Nicholas shared, “Anyone with an avid interest in Statistics would find the timeline of events and the protagonist's daily routine, familiar. This is because I wrote the essay in the summer that immediately followed my completion of SMU's Introductory Statistics course. Ms Rosie Ching, my professor for the course, included numerous historical breakthroughs in the field of Statistics in her curriculum. With these breakthroughs fresh in my mind, I envisioned a parallel universe which retained these landmark occurrences, but took on a dark twist of events. The plot line was largely inspired by dystopian novels; the classic 1984 by George Orwell, and the more recent Divergent series by Veronica Roth.”

Nicholas credited Ms Rosie Ching for encouraging him to participate in the competition. “Without her encouragement and infectious passion for Statistics, it is unlikely that I would have written this essay at all,” he said.

Nicholas added, “Besides allowing me to consolidate my Statistics knowledge and apply it creatively, my participation in this competition has been a great confidence booster that has led me to challenge myself more and embark on endeavors I otherwise would not have.”

[Photo: Nicholas credited Ms Rosie Ching, Senior Lecturer of Statistics at School of Economics, for encouraging him to participate in The Taming of Chance Story Competition, in which he emerged as winner of the Youth Prize.]

Read Nicholas’ story here.