Somebody's Not Going To Have Any Difficulty Getting Into College

Glenn Bruda is truly brilliant young man whom I can relate to. I've known a few other math prodigies in his league, although his accomplishments are particularly impressive. 

If I were him, I'd be applying to schools like Cal Tech,  M.I.T., and Princeton, all of which would be thrilled to admit him, rather than the University of Florida. But that's his prerogative, I guess.

Glenn Bruda . . . a [17-year-old] senior at Buchholz High School in Gainesville. He . . .  concocted [what] turned out to be an entirely new calculus technique to solve integral equations. He cross checked it with mathematics professors at Santa Fe College and the University of Florida, who later encouraged him to submit his discovery for publication. On Jan. 30, 2022, it was published to Cornell University’s “arXiv”, an open-access archive for scholarly scientific articles. . . . Bruda titled his integration technique the “Maclaurin Integration” because it is derived from a formula named after Colin Maclaurin, a famous 18th century Scottish mathematician. He is now in the process of writing a second mathematical paper that will propose another original integration technique.

The Maclaurin Integration technique Bruda developed is designed to be “one of the most versatile integration techniques” because, with it, “there is essentially zero human labor involved in calculating integrals.”

Bruda keeps the notebook where he wrote his first original integral calculus technique as a source of motivation. There are visible water stains on the page from when he spilled his glass in excitement. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Bruda)

Where most integration techniques can only be applied to around 10% to 40% of integral problems, Bruda’s technique applies to approximately 73% of integrals. That means it is almost two times more effective than most mainstream techniques.

Integration techniques are most common in Calculus II courses, which – despite not having graduated high school – Bruda claims as his favorite mathematics course to date. Bruda is a dual-enrolled student at Santa Fe College, where he is currently enrolled in courses like Differential Equations and Physics I with Calculus.. . . He’s now applying for the Davidson Fellows Scholarship, a prestigious scholarship for gifted high school students with rewards of $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000. The scholarship is awarded to students who create a “significant piece of work” at the graduate level. The Davidson Institute defines significant work as work “that experts in the field recognize as meaningful and has the potential to make a positive contribution to society.” . . . He is a Gainesville native who hopes to study mathematics at the University of Florida.

Bruda poses with his dog Leggo while wearing a graduation cap and gown. He graduates from Buchholz soon, and hopes to study mathematics at the University of Florida. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Bruda)