Shaoyu Xu

01 · Who I Am

Numbers on paper. People on the court.

I'm Shaoyu Xu, a Grade 12 IBDP student at Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy. In Grade 10 I transferred from a Chinese public school into full English instruction — and scored 29/42 my first semester. Two years later I scored 35/42, with a formal commendation from my school. Along the way I founded Navigating the Sea of Math — 40+ teaching videos with 100,000+ views — served as a student lecturer at Fudan University's ISTBI, presented my digital-twin zebrafish research at ICIBM 2026 in Buffalo, captained my class team to a grade-league championship, and now serve as the officially appointed head coach of the girls' varsity basketball team. My story isn't about talent. It's about deliberate practice — and making the people around me better.

"A 29 on my first IB report. A tournament lost to my weak left hand. A Go board where I lost a hundred games before my first title. None of these are setbacks in my story — they are the training log."

I grew up believing effort is a system, not a slogan. In Go, it was ten years of quiet calculation from 10-kyu to 4-dan. In basketball, it was filming my own practices and rebuilding my weak hand until the scoreboard flipped. In the IB, it was turning a 29 into a 35 — and a school commendation. Navigating the Sea of Math is where all of it converges: taking what deliberate practice taught me and giving it away — one math video at a time, one middle-school lecture at Fudan's ISTBI at a time. In college, I want to keep building that system: mathematics, cognitive science, and the question of how people actually learn. The scoreboard follows the training. It always has.

Interests

∑ Competition Math 🏀 Basketball Strategy 👟 Sneaker Technology ⚫ Go · Amateur 4-Dan 🧠 Bayesian Inference 🎥 Science Communication 🤖 Robotics & Welding ⛵ Sailing

I'm a genuine sneaker enthusiast: I research shoe technology and how different builds match different playstyles, and I've become the go-to advisor when classmates, my parents, and my older brother need a new pair.

02 · Teaching

Teaching Math, One Video at a Time

Navigating the Sea of Math is the math-outreach project I founded as my IB CAS initiative: 40+ systematically recorded lessons covering calculus, algebra, series, and competition problem-solving — with 100,000+ views and 1,000+ followers. I believe you truly understand a problem only when you can explain it to someone else. Every video walks through a problem the way I'd teach a friend, not the way a textbook would. Click any card to play. The featured lesson below is the first of my English-language series.

What the library covers

Calculus · Limits & Integrals Improper Integrals & p-Series Taylor & Maclaurin Series Fourier Series Functional Equations Combinatorics & Counting AMC / AIME Walkthroughs Competition Geometry

Most of the 40+ lessons were recorded and published on Chinese platforms, where they passed 100,000 views and earned a following of 1,000+. I am now rebuilding the core sequence in English on YouTube — the featured lesson above is the first release of that series, and more are on the way.

03 · Coaching

Two Jerseys, One Purpose

I picked up a basketball at age five and taught myself the scientific way: filming my own practices, then comparing them play-by-play against NBA footage. When a Grade 9 tournament loss exposed my weak left hand, I trained it deliberately for a full year — and won the next tournament by double digits. In Grade 10 the varsity boys made me a starter, and the girls' team asked me to be their head coach. Same lesson everywhere: strategy plus deliberate practice beats raw talent.

Head Coach · 2026–2027 Appointment

Girls' Varsity Basketball

Officially appointed for the 2026–2027 season. I run the training, the tactical planning and the player development — and I coach by asking questions instead of giving orders.

Guided the team to 4th place in a city-wide competition among 30+ teams
Designed whiteboard systems the players run themselves
Built a culture where younger players speak up in film sessions

Player · Varsity Boys' Basketball

Starter & Championship Captain

Starter on the school varsity team. On court my job is reading the game two plays ahead — the same skill I use dissecting an AIME problem.

Team captain — led class team to the Grade-11 league championship (2026)
Grade 10 MVP voting runner-up · League Best Player award
Self-filmed, frame-by-frame training analysis; deliberate weak-hand rebuild — then won by double digits

Coaching the girls' team reshaped how I communicate. My players didn't respond to volume — they responded to being heard. I learned to run a timeout the way I'd approach a stubborn proof: start from what the other side already knows, then build outward. The patience behind it came from ten years of Go — calculating quietly, one stone at a time, from 10-kyu to amateur 4-dan. That skill — earning trust across backgrounds, genders, and roles — is the one I'll carry furthest into college.

04 · Awards & Research

The Credentials Behind the Teaching

Teaching and coaching are what I do. These are the results that back them up — competition mathematics, university-level coursework, and one research project I took all the way to an international stage.

Academic Background

IBDP at Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy — HL Mathematics & Physics, SL English B, Chinese, Biology, Economics. I transferred from a Chinese public school in Grade 10; my IB score grew from 29/42 to 35/42, recognized with a formal school commendation. In Summer 2026 I completed UC Berkeley Pre-College MATH 53 (Multivariable Calculus) and MATH 16B (Calculus), earning university credit.

Honors & Awards

2026
AMC 12B — Score 144 / 150Top 5% globally · Certificate of Distinction · AIME qualifier
2026
AIME — Score 9 / 15American Invitational Mathematics Examination
2026
CCL (Continental Calculus League) — National Gold AwardScore 38 / 40
2025
HiMCM — Honorable MentionHigh School Mathematical Contest in Modeling
2026
ICIBM 2026 — Oral Presentation Selected14th International Conference on Intelligent Biology and Medicine, Buffalo · Future Scientist in AI Session
2026
UC Berkeley Pre-College Scholars — CompletedMATH 53 (Multivariable Calculus) & MATH 16B (Calculus), with university credit
2026
Grade-Level Basketball League — Team Captain, ChampionsLed the class team to the Grade-11 championship
2024–25
School Boys' Basketball League — Best PlayerGrade 10 MVP voting runner-up
2024
Huanya International Math Invitational — First PrizeInternational mathematics invitational
2016–25
Chinese Go Association — Amateur 4-DanYangpu District Go Championship, First Prize
2023
Fudan Group Essay Competition — First PrizeBaihua Challenge feature article — 3rd Prize & Collaboration Award
2025
School Robotics Competition — Second PrizeCore team member: welding & mechanical assembly
2025
WFLA Commendation LetterIB score growth 29 → 35 · formal recognition from the grade dean
2025
TOEFL — 107English proficiency

Featured Research

Independent research applying Bayesian hierarchical models and ensemble Kalman filters to simulate neural dynamics from zebrafish calcium-imaging data — building toward a "digital twin" of a small brain. Conducted under the guidance of Associate Professor Nan Zhang, Fudan University, and presented at ICIBM 2026 (14th International Conference on Intelligent Biology and Medicine, Buffalo). This is not an endpoint — it's a beginning: using mathematics to understand the brain, and how we make decisions.