The role of Tangente in popularizing science is now firmly established across the board. The Tangente Awards embody that role by honoring those who most successfully combine creativity at the intersection of mathematics and another discipline. They have become eagerly awaited annual events, culminating each year in a ceremony at the prestigious Palais du Luxembourg in Paris.
The awards cover many fields. Although the Osc'Art prize for mathematical art is not presented every year—it will be in 2017—the artists who have distinguished themselves through it are always involved, since they create the works presented to the various winners. They include Jérémie Brunet, a specialist in fractal art, who creates the Tangente Book Award trophy; Scowcza, who creates the Novelli Award trophy; Denise Pranville, who creates the Best Article Award trophy; Sellig Zed, who creates the honorable mention awards; and engraver Patrice Jeener, one of whose works is presented to the winner of the new Tangente Award for High School Students.
**
**
====================================
The Novelli Award will soon be open to postsecondary students --------------------------------------------
The Bernard Novelli Award has recognized projects combining mathematics and computer science since 2014. It is intended for high school students with a passion for computing. In short, contestants must design a mathematical computer game.
The 2016 award went to Nicolas Daire for his 3D-Mineur. As its name suggests, the game takes the classic game of "Minesweeper" into the third dimension. There is, incidentally, a book of strategic advice for Minesweeper written by… Bernard Novelli, the game designer in whose honor the award was created.
For readers unfamiliar with the rules, the game starts with a variable number of blocks arranged to form a cube. A block may be empty or conceal a bomb. The player's aim is to locate every bomb. Clues are provided in the form of the number of bombs "adjacent" to each uncovered block. Using this information, the player can "reveal" a block by declaring whether or not it contains a bomb. If the player is correct, that block is destroyed, along with all visible blocks that are not adjacent to a bomb. The aim is to clear all the empty blocks, leaving only the bombs visible, in the shortest possible time.
The young winner coded the project in C# using the Unity game engine and also created all the graphics. Besides the tangible prizes he received—the latest CASIO calculator and a work of mathematical art by Scowcza—perhaps the most motivating reward is the prospect of seeing his project turned into a professional mobile app with the partners' help. The app developed from the 2015 winning project will, incidentally, be available in early 2017.
Competition will be fierce for the next Novelli Award! To mark Tangente's thirtieth anniversary, the competition will be expanded to include students in the first three years after the baccalauréat, while a separate award for high school students will continue to be presented.
-
Tangente Book Award: one winner and two honorable mentions ----------------------------------------------------
Literature holds a special place among Tangente's initiatives, making the magazine the undisputed authority in this field. The Tangente Awards are no exception, since the Tangente Book Award lies at their heart. This literary award for books about mathematics is now eagerly awaited by enthusiasts, authors and publishers alike, with the latter two delighted by the impact of an honorable mention—or, better still, the highest distinction (see box).
For the 2016 edition, the jury began with the "nominees" chosen by Internet users and honored three books that highlight the importance of mathematics in writing accessible to a general readership.
The award went to Éloge des Mathématiques (Flammarion), in which Alain Badiou answers questions from Gilles Haéri, director of Éditions Flammarion. The philosopher brings all his literary talent to bear in championing mathematical culture, revealing the ties that bind the "old couple" of mathematics and philosophy and brilliantly exploring the path to happiness along which mathematics can lead us.
As in the previous year, two honorable mentions were awarded.
\- L'information, by James Gleick (Cassini), is THE missing book on information theory.
\- Les maths au tribunal, by Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez (Le Seuil), draws on carefully analyzed real-life cases to prompt reflection on the use of mathematical tools in judicial decisions. The jury described the book as a "weapon of mass instruction" that should be placed in the hands of legal professionals.
-
The new Tangente Award for High School Students: a success ------------------------------------------------
The inaugural Tangente Award for High School Students ran throughout the 2015–2016 school year. The format was simple. A selection of ten mathematics-related books was put forward, ranging from novels, personal accounts and crime fiction to popular science books, graphic novels and biographies. The publishers donated all these books to the ten participating schools. Around ten or more volunteer students at each school formed a jury, bringing together more than 150 young people nationwide. Each school applied its own selection criteria to choose its favorite book, after which a national ranking was compiled. Tangente rewarded every young participant with a digital subscription.
The Tangente Award for High School Students was launched to attract students of all kinds, from tenth grade (French seconde) to the final year of high school: those with the strongest interest in mathematics were able to gain an appreciation of literature, while the more literary-minded had an opportunity to see mathematics in a new light. Organizing the award within the schools also fostered fruitful collaboration among mathematics teachers, librarians and literature teachers. Enthusiasm ran high on all sides, clearly revealing how artificial the divide between the humanities and sciences really is.
The results were extremely positive. Teachers were amazed by their students' commitment and enthusiasm. The initiative was often extended through original and interesting educational activities: writing book reviews, studying texts in French classes, recording radio segments, and so on.
For the 2017 edition, ten new high schools have already joined the initiative. They are joined by eight of the original schools that took part in 2016 and have decided to sign up again, purchasing the books themselves. Success already seems assured for the years ahead!
**
**
Tangente Award for Best Article -------------------------------------
The final prize presented at the 2016 Awards was the Tangente Award for Best Article. So many candidates submitted articles that the jury members had to draw up a shortlist before deliberating on the six selected entries.
=============================
The winner was Léo Gerville-Réache, who teaches statistics at the Université de Bordeaux and at an engineering school, for his article "D'Alembert's Heads-or-Tails Law", which examines a historical controversy—little known today—over the interpretation of probability.
D'Alembert's error, which his contemporaries judged very harshly, has clear educational value: a new science does not emerge overnight! Considered historically valuable, highly original and wide-ranging, the article will be published in a forthcoming issue of Tangente—one of the prizes.
And this may well be more than a one-off experience! Fabien Aoustin and Christian Laforest, the first two winners of the Tangente Award for Best Article, are now contributors to our magazine. It is therefore no coincidence that their bylines appear in this issue: Christian Laforest's on page 18, in the "Mathematical Experiments" feature, and Fabien Aoustin's on page 36, in the feature devoted to "Fermat's little theorem."
Christian Laforest has also written a book about graphs, due to be published in late January 2017. You can already read our review on page 40 and preorder the book from the Infinimath store (page 41).
As for Fabien Aoustin, he does far more than write: he is very involved in the high school where he teaches mathematics. He involved his students in the Tangente Award for High School Students from its very first year and is now one of the Club Tangente members who run the award.
Club Tangente is the association that organizes the nonprofit events sponsored by our magazine. It will be especially busy in 2017, the year of Tangente's thirtieth anniversary. So if you would like to volunteer to help organize mathematics events, do not hesitate to apply.