Judges and speakers

The Mathathon runs October 30 – November 1 at the California Institute of Technology. A hundred teams work for 40 hours on open problems, with frontier models at their disposal. We are looking for mathematicians and researchers willing to serve as judges, speakers, or both.

What a judge does

Judging happens in two stages, and they are very different jobs.

During the event, judging is based on oral presentations. Teams present what they have found and answer questions, and you assess the promise of the direction rather than the correctness of a finished proof. The question is which lines of attack look most likely to lead somewhere, and which teams understand what they are actually claiming. This is a few hours on the final day, in small panels, and we will do our best to keep you on work in your field. A preliminary judging rubric is available here.

Verifying the proofs comes later. Checking the mathematics properly usually takes months. Judges who want to carry on are invited to take part in that verification after the event, at their own pace and on whichever results interest them. Serving during the event does not commit you to this. We will not describe a result as solved, proved, or verified in any public communication until it has completed this process.

Chat histories and results from the event will be published on mathdb.com.

What a speaker does

Speakers either give a short talk or join a panel discussion at the opening or closing ceremony (10 to 20 minutes), or give a longer talk at a workshop (30 minutes to an hour). Talks are about your own work, about problems you think are ripe, or about what changes when proof assistants and frontier models enter mathematical practice. You are welcome to pose a problem you would like to see attacked over the weekend.

Apply

Full name

Affiliation and title For example: Professor of Mathematics, Caltech.

Resume or CV PDF, DOC, or DOCX, up to 10 MB. Required.

Do you want to be a judge or a speaker?

Terms for judges and speakers

Role and confirmation. Applying does not by itself confirm a role. Roles are confirmed in writing by the organisers, and the programme, schedule, and format may change.
Use of your name. You consent to the Caltech Mathathon using your name, title, and affiliation — and any photograph you provide — in lists of judges and speakers, including on the website, social media, press outreach, materials shown to sponsors and partners, and summaries published after the event. This does not cover being presented as endorsing or verifying a specific team's result — we will show you that material and ask separately first.
Accuracy. The details you give are accurate as far as you know, and you may correct them at any time by contacting the organisers.
Confidentiality and publication. Work shown to you by competing teams may be unpublished. You agree not to disclose or reuse it outside the judging process without that team's permission. Note that the organisers separately publish chat histories and results from the event on mathdb.com; that publication is the organisers' to make, not a licence for you to republish elsewhere.
Conflicts of interest. You will tell the organisers about any relationship with a competing team that could affect your impartiality, and step aside from judging that team where appropriate.
Recording. Talks and judging sessions may be recorded, and those recordings may be published.
Compensation. Judging and speaking are unpaid unless agreed separately in writing. Travel reimbursement, where offered, is arranged separately.
Your data. Your contact details and resume are stored to run the event. They are not sold, and are not shared outside the organising team.
Withdrawing. You may withdraw from the event, or withdraw consent to future use of your name, by emailing mathathon@caltech.edu. Materials already printed or published cannot always be recalled.