A bound on similar structures in 3-uniform hypergraphs
Owen Jianwen Zhang · Bellevue, Washington
Third Place ($150,000) · Regeneron Science Talent Search · 2025
A proof establishing a maximum for how many 3-uniform hypergraphs can share a structure while differing in their connections, resolving a question that had stood open, with applications in computer science.
Solving a stated open problem means the significance is settled before you start — the community already agreed the question mattered. That is a very different position from having to argue your own question is interesting.
- Extremal combinatorics
- Hypergraph structure analysis
- Upper-bound proof
- Construction of extremal examples
- Working on a known open problem means you never have to justify why it matters
- Combinatorics rewards a proof of a tight bound over an improvement on a loose one
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