IMACS Through History
Some say that the history of IMACS began in 1963 with Burt Kaufman, but we think it started a long time ago. A long long time ago. We present below a somewhat light-hearted but accurate history of IMACS. A more detailed accounting of the institute’s history and the research and development that led to its creation can be had from the biography of its senior founder, Burt Kaufman.
22,000 BC
Oldest Known Artifact
“Ishango bone” found in the Congo. This is one of the earliest known objects that may have been used by ancient humans to study mathematics, potentially indicating use of logical reasoning and understanding of prime numbers.
2,000 - 1,800 BC
Egyptian Writings
Egyptian Middle Kingdom papyrus are the oldest known mathematics writings containing "word problems" or "story problems."
1,800-1,600 BC
Babylonian Clay Tablets
They show fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations, multiplication & trigonometry tables, methods for solving linear and quadratic equations, and more.
582-508 BC
Pythagoras
Inspired by the mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India, he is credited with a proof of the Pythagorean theorem and alluded to the existence of irrational numbers.
1450s
Negative Numbers
Negative numbers appear in Italy and across Europe, though they had been used for centuries already in India and China.
1963
Burt Kaufman
25+ years before IMACS, Burt Kaufman publishes the Goals for School Mathematics paper, containing a multi-track secondary school mathematics curriculum.
1964
Problem with Students
The textbooks chosen by educators working with Burt are proving to be too lacking in rigor to be used effectively with pre-college students. Work begins on improving multiple issues.
1966
Book 1 is Born
Burt participates in what was to become Book 1 of Elements of Mathematics - a groundbreaking series that had an impact on the mathematics education community.
1974
Ed Martin
Ed Martin becomes Senior Editor of the Elements of Mathematics series and develops a 2nd Edition derived from several years of classroom use of the 1st.
1978
Project MEGSSS
Schools join - at no cost - a Mathematics Education for Gifted Secondary School Students program that proves to be popular with both students and parents. This curriculum would provide the foundation for what would later become IMACS.
1979
Suduko
Howard Garns invents sudoku, meaning 'single number' in Japanese. Math puzzles quickly become popular around the world.
1985
Iain Ferguson joins the Florida team
Computer science specialist Iain Ferguson arrives from Bath UK and soon sets about developing what was to become the MEGSSS computer science curriculum.
1989
The World Wide Web is invented
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, invents the World Wide Web. The first Web browser on a NeXT computer has many of the features of today's web browsers.
1990
The Schemer's Guide
The first edition of the 300+ page The Schemers Guide is published. It's heavy "emphasis on fundamentals of good computer programming" is noted in reviews.
1990
Student wins 1st place with American Mathematical Society
As a High School MEGSSS student, Daniel Dugger wins the first place award from the American Mathematical Society for an original research paper.
1993
IMACS is founded
Burt Kaufman, Ed Martin, and Terry Kaufman make the Project MEGSSS curriculum widely available by starting the Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (IMACS).
1994
A Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem
After a stubborn 358 years, a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem takes on the most famous unsolved problem in mathematics.
2000
IMACS extends class offerings
In addition to elementary-level programs, IMACS extends its reach across all pre-college grade levels with programs like University Computer Science and Logic for Mathematics.
2014
Magic square stamps
The post office of Macao in the People's Republic of China issue a series of stamps based on mathematical magic squares.
2014
A IMACS student meets Obama
Peyton Robertson, a 12 year-old IMACS student presents his "sandless sandbags" invention to President Obama at the White House. At the news conference, President Obama said "If you can invest in Peyton you should do so now."
2019
IMACS Classes are all online
Multiple year-round programs (and student/parent portals!) from IMACS are fully online. IMACS goes global with these new classes.
2021
IMACS continues to grow
Having seen over 15,000 alumni across more than 10 countries, IMACS continues to graduate the brightest students with our innovative programs and classes.
2021
Your child's future is bright
Your child can be just like our current student Albert Wang who was recently admitted to MIT in only his Junior year! It all starts with a free class. The future of IMACS and your talented child starts today.