Konhauser Problemfest

This year's competition will be held on Saturday, February 27, 2010, at the University of St. Thomas.
Contact Prof. Doug Dokken.

The Konhauser Problemfest was started in 1993, in honor of Joe Konhauser (1924-1992), a long-time professor at Macalester who was a very active problemist.

He posted nearly 700 Problems of the Week at Macalester over a 25-year period.  Visit Problem of the Week to view current and past problems and sign up for a weekly email.  Since the problems are meant to be accessible to first-year college students, very little background is needed to understand or solve them.

The Konhauser is a fun event and usually includes around 20 teams.  Macalester, St. Olaf, Careleton, Gustavus, and UST rotate the hosting of this event (we hosted in 2006).  Augsburg and St. Kate's also frequently attend.  The history of the event is listed on the Konhauser website

Students work in teams of three and are allowed to use calculators.  The 3-hour competition starts at 9:00 a.m., followed by a free lunch.  When the graders are finished, we assemble for the announcement of the winners and team prizes are awarded.  There are monetary prizes of $180, $75, and $45, in addition to the first place beautiful granite trophy (photo at right).
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Carleton hosted Februrary 28, 2009.  St. Olaf won.
Our UST team consisted of Seemon Hur, Monique Pratt, and Vy Tran  They placed 8th out of the 15 teams who participated.
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Macalester hosted Februrary 24, 2008.  Gustavus won.
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On February 24, 2007, faculty members Kurt Scholz and Doug Dokken led a group of UST students to St. Olaf .  Team 1 consisted of Mike Cook, Luke Edholm, and Jason McClintic.  Team 2 included Nate Brandt, Van Chounlamountry, and John Engstrom.
 
Fifteen teams from St. Olaf, Carleton, Macalester, and
St. Thomas participated.  Problems were set by David Molnar, University of Puget Sound.  St. Olaf won for the first time, with a score of 93/100, and so has possession of the beautiful granite “pizza” trophy.  Carleton teams placed second and third.
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UST hosted February 25, 2006.  Story and photos in our Spring 2006 Sines of Times.