Akamai Unveils Foundation to Promote Mathematics Education and Proficiency
At a public event this evening, The Akamai Foundation will unveil its first set of initiatives entitled "The Magic of Math." Working closely with the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), Akamai management and employees are committing their own resources and time, as well as a multi-million dollar financial contribution, to projects including:
In celebration of the foundation's establishment, Akamai will host an event at its Cambridge, MA headquarters this evening featuring a keynote address from Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, leaders of the IMO and MAA/AMC, the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year for 2001, as well as Akamai executives. Also in attendance will be local students, business leaders and political figures.
"Akamai was conceived and founded on mathematical innovation, and we are honored to join others who are equally committed to improving the performance by young people in this critically important field," said George Conrades, chairman and CEO of Akamai. "The establishment of The Akamai Foundation, and our commitment of intellectual capital and financial support, is a first step in creating the next great generation of problem solvers for our technology-driven world."
National Survey Shows Kids Enthusiasm Doesn't Match Math Skills
In a separate release issued today, Akamai announced the results of a national survey conducted by Roper Starch, entitled "Kids on Math," yielding surprising results from America's young people (ages 12-17). A resounding 80% of the students polled rated math "very important" after graduation, above subjects such as English, science, foreign languages, physical education and history, respectively.
The survey highlights a discrepancy between overall enthusiasm for math and students' performance in the subject. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 69% of 12th graders only have "at or above proficient" math skills.
To encourage more young people to use the Internet as a tool for math education (according to the Roper Starch survey, only 7% of students access the Internet for help with their homework on a daily basis), The Akamai Foundation has created an interactive Web site, www.magicofmath.org, where visitors can register for math competitions, link to popular math resources, or question "Math Wizards"- a group of Akamai employees volunteering their time to interact with and help students.
"We are most appreciative of Akamai's willingness to devote themselves to this important cause," said John Kenelly, president of the International Mathematical Olympiad - 2001. "The U.S. has won the International Mathematical Olympiad four times in the last 41 years, and we are striving to make our success in mathematics, and the public's interest, rise to the level that has been achieved by our athletic Olympiads. With Akamai's support, we hope to increase the awareness and success of U.S. children participating in these competitive events."
Akamai Unveils View of the Internet at Work
As a backdrop to this evening's event, Akamai will also provide the first public view of the company's Network Operations Command Center (NOCC), the world's most comprehensive, live view of global Internet traffic. The Akamai NOCC enables proactive monitoring and troubleshooting of all servers in the global Akamai network. The NOCC's unique view of the Internet ensures a seamless response to worldwide network conditions-enabling Akamai to deliver rich Web content, regardless of network traffic volume. The NOCC is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by expert network operations personnel.
About the IMO
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the World Championship Mathematics Competition for High School students and is held annually in a different country. The first IMO was held in 1959 in Romania, with 7 countries participating. It has gradually expanded to over 80 countries from all 5 continents.
The USA will host the 42nd IMO in Washington, DC, July 1-14, 2001. This prestigious event will bring to the USA 500 of the most talented high school age mathematicians from more than 80 countries. At the closing ceremony, outstanding performances are honored by the awarding of gold, silver, and bronze medals to students. The festivities end with an elaborate farewell banquet.
The Clay Mathematics Institute
The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a private, not-for-profit, operating foundation, dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematical knowledge. A major goal of CMI is to encourage gifted students to pursue mathematical careers; toward this end the CMI holds special summer programs for secondary school students who are talented in mathematics, and a contest for research mathematicians. The Clay Mathematics Institute will provide and direct the closing ceremony of IMO 2001. Their web site, www.claymath.org, is delivered by Akamai.
About the MAA
The Mathematical Association of America is the largest professional society of college and university mathematics teachers in the world. Today MAA's 30,000 members include college and university faculty, two-year college faculty, high school teachers, government and corporate workers, graduate school faculty, research mathematicians, and graduate and undergraduate students.
About the Roper Starch Survey
The survey was conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide, one of the nation's largest public opinion and marketing research firms. Telephone interviews were conducted from September 7 to September 11, 2000, with a nationally representative random sample of 514 children ages 12 through 17. The margin of error for a sample of this size is +/- 4%.
About Akamai
Akamai is the foremost provider of global, high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media and applications, serving over 2,100 customers. Akamai has the broadest deployment of servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 4,200 servers in 50 countries directly connected to 225 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
| Contacts: |
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| Jeff Young Akamai Technologies 617-250-3913 jyoung@akamai.com |
--or-- | Maria Brown NYPR 212-421-3555 maria@nypr.com |
Funded by Akamai management and employees, foundation establishes programs for the pursuit of excellence in mathematics, encouraging America's next generation of technology innovators
CAMBRIDGE, MA - September 25, 2000 - Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the foremost provider of global, high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media and applications, announced today the formation of The Akamai Foundation. The foundation, funded by Akamai management and employees, is designed to strengthen mathematics education and performance in United States public schools (K-12), through a series of initiatives aimed at fostering excellence in math learning and proficiency for an Internet-centric world.At a public event this evening, The Akamai Foundation will unveil its first set of initiatives entitled "The Magic of Math." Working closely with the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), Akamai management and employees are committing their own resources and time, as well as a multi-million dollar financial contribution, to projects including:
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Establishment of an annual college scholarship program recognizing the top performing math student from each of the 50 states;
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Sponsorship of the 42nd International Mathematical Olympiad, the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Competitions (AMC);
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Creation of a centralized testing program for the top 240 math students in the country, as well as a two-day "public" event for the test that determines the members of the U.S. IMO team (this event will be similar to the national "Olympic trials"); and,
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Support for the expansion of the MAA's current training program for up-and-coming math students.
In celebration of the foundation's establishment, Akamai will host an event at its Cambridge, MA headquarters this evening featuring a keynote address from Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, leaders of the IMO and MAA/AMC, the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year for 2001, as well as Akamai executives. Also in attendance will be local students, business leaders and political figures.
"Akamai was conceived and founded on mathematical innovation, and we are honored to join others who are equally committed to improving the performance by young people in this critically important field," said George Conrades, chairman and CEO of Akamai. "The establishment of The Akamai Foundation, and our commitment of intellectual capital and financial support, is a first step in creating the next great generation of problem solvers for our technology-driven world."
National Survey Shows Kids Enthusiasm Doesn't Match Math Skills
In a separate release issued today, Akamai announced the results of a national survey conducted by Roper Starch, entitled "Kids on Math," yielding surprising results from America's young people (ages 12-17). A resounding 80% of the students polled rated math "very important" after graduation, above subjects such as English, science, foreign languages, physical education and history, respectively.
The survey highlights a discrepancy between overall enthusiasm for math and students' performance in the subject. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 69% of 12th graders only have "at or above proficient" math skills.
To encourage more young people to use the Internet as a tool for math education (according to the Roper Starch survey, only 7% of students access the Internet for help with their homework on a daily basis), The Akamai Foundation has created an interactive Web site, www.magicofmath.org, where visitors can register for math competitions, link to popular math resources, or question "Math Wizards"- a group of Akamai employees volunteering their time to interact with and help students.
"We are most appreciative of Akamai's willingness to devote themselves to this important cause," said John Kenelly, president of the International Mathematical Olympiad - 2001. "The U.S. has won the International Mathematical Olympiad four times in the last 41 years, and we are striving to make our success in mathematics, and the public's interest, rise to the level that has been achieved by our athletic Olympiads. With Akamai's support, we hope to increase the awareness and success of U.S. children participating in these competitive events."
Akamai Unveils View of the Internet at Work
As a backdrop to this evening's event, Akamai will also provide the first public view of the company's Network Operations Command Center (NOCC), the world's most comprehensive, live view of global Internet traffic. The Akamai NOCC enables proactive monitoring and troubleshooting of all servers in the global Akamai network. The NOCC's unique view of the Internet ensures a seamless response to worldwide network conditions-enabling Akamai to deliver rich Web content, regardless of network traffic volume. The NOCC is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by expert network operations personnel.
About the IMO
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the World Championship Mathematics Competition for High School students and is held annually in a different country. The first IMO was held in 1959 in Romania, with 7 countries participating. It has gradually expanded to over 80 countries from all 5 continents.
The USA will host the 42nd IMO in Washington, DC, July 1-14, 2001. This prestigious event will bring to the USA 500 of the most talented high school age mathematicians from more than 80 countries. At the closing ceremony, outstanding performances are honored by the awarding of gold, silver, and bronze medals to students. The festivities end with an elaborate farewell banquet.
The Clay Mathematics Institute
The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a private, not-for-profit, operating foundation, dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematical knowledge. A major goal of CMI is to encourage gifted students to pursue mathematical careers; toward this end the CMI holds special summer programs for secondary school students who are talented in mathematics, and a contest for research mathematicians. The Clay Mathematics Institute will provide and direct the closing ceremony of IMO 2001. Their web site, www.claymath.org, is delivered by Akamai.
About the MAA
The Mathematical Association of America is the largest professional society of college and university mathematics teachers in the world. Today MAA's 30,000 members include college and university faculty, two-year college faculty, high school teachers, government and corporate workers, graduate school faculty, research mathematicians, and graduate and undergraduate students.
About the Roper Starch Survey
The survey was conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide, one of the nation's largest public opinion and marketing research firms. Telephone interviews were conducted from September 7 to September 11, 2000, with a nationally representative random sample of 514 children ages 12 through 17. The margin of error for a sample of this size is +/- 4%.
About Akamai
Akamai is the foremost provider of global, high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media and applications, serving over 2,100 customers. Akamai has the broadest deployment of servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 4,200 servers in 50 countries directly connected to 225 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.
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The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
