FOUNDERS
H. METIN AKTULGA, Ph.D.
Computer Science Programs Coordinator
USACO Gold Instructor
Dr. Aktulga is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University since 2014. After receiving his PhD from Purdue University in 2010, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Aside from his academic career, Dr. Aktulga has taught USACO courses to middle and high school students at A-Star summer camps. Dr. Aktulga has represented Turkey at IOI 2000 in Beijing, China.
A. K. BAHAR, Ph.D.
Math Programs Coordinator
Mathcounts/AMC8 Instructor
Dr. Bahar is a former mathematics teacher and Mathcounts coach, He coached AZ Mathcounts State team twice in a row to the National level. Dr. Bahar is the recipient of numerous awards including Math Hero of the Year Award (national recognition by Raytheon Co & MathMovesU in 2009, United States) and Edith May Sliffe - Distinguished Teaching Award (nation-wide recognition by Mathematical Association of America in 2010). Currently, Dr. Bahar serves as the director of Youth in College STEM program that offers classes in STEM areas, from advanced mathematical problem solving to Lego Robotics for talented students.
Summer Camp Instructors
LELAND WEI, PhD.
Mathcounts/AMC8 and Introduction to Programming
Leland has worked as quantitative analyst, programmer and strategist in financial firms at Wall Street. With a keen interest in competition math, he has taught math classes for middle and high school students for many years, and tutored students at various levels focusing on MathCounts and AMC series. He served twice as the official state coach to lead the NY state team to MathCounts National Competitions in 2015 and 2016, and also organized and coached other competition teams, including PUMaC and HMMT. Leland received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and M.S. in Computer Science from University of Southern California.
EMRE ESENTURK, PhD.
AMC 10/12 Instructor
Dr. Esenturk is currently a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. After earning his Ph.D., he has held postdoctoral researcher positions at Brown University, POSTECH Korea, University of Warwick and University of Cambridge. Dr. Esenturk has several years of teaching expertise at the college level.
HUSEYIN ACAN, PhD.
AMC 10/12 Instructor
Dr. Acan is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mathematics at Rutgers University. After earning his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 2013, he continued his research at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia for two years. In addition to teaching at the college level, he has several years of experience preparing talented middle and high school students for math competitions. Dr. Acan has represented Turkey at IMO 1999 in Bucharest, Romania, where he won a Bronze medal.
KURT A. O'HEARN
USACO Bronze Instructor
Kurt A. O’Hearn is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University (MSU) since fall of 2015. He received his B.S. degrees from Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in 2013 in Computer Science and Mathematics. Kurt has over 3 years of experience as a teaching and laboratory assistant for numerous courses at GVSU and MSU. Also, Kurt represented GVSU 3 times in the ACM-ICPC Collegiate Programming Contest.
ABDULLAH ALPEREN
USACO Silver Instructor
Abdullah Alperen is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University since 2017. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. Abdullah has represented Turkey at IOI 2011 in Pattaya, Thailand and IOI 2012 in Brescia, Italy. He won a bronze medal in Thailand.
ERIC WEI
USACO Bronze & Gold Instructor
Eric is a student of Scarsdale High School Class of 2020. He is a six times AIME qualifier, 2 times USAJMO qualifier, and 2 times USAMO qualifier. He was on the MathCounts NY State team 3 times (2014-2016; 1st place written 2016), and National Countdown Qualifier in 2016 (8th written). He has been a USACO Platinum contestant since February 2018, and currently a Codeforces Division I competitor (Master level coder).