In preparation for the annual topology conference, California State University, Chico s Department of Mathematics and Statistics held a contest challenging anyone to solve a complex topology problem.
Topology is the mathematical study of the subsets of sets.
The CSU, Chico problem is written on a blackboard near the Holt Hall math department office. The winner of the contest is the one who develops the most subsets. In the case of a tie, the person who turns in the solution first wins. Nay said that he solved the problem the first day and then came up with 13 subsets. He turned in his answer one week after the problem was posted.