7 things you need to know about the brightest Filipino math prodigy

MANILA, Philippines — If there's one subject we all probably dreaded back in high school, it would be Mathematics.

With the never ending search for x and y, most of us have perhaps developed an irrational fear of the Pythagorean Theorem, but for some who love solving torturous equations, Math is seen as an art form like any other instead of being highly incomprehensible numbers. This goes out to Farrell Eldrian Wu's case, a 14-year-old student dubbed as the country's brightest Math prodigy.

Just recently, Wu, was granted Philippine citizenship by an act of Congress. President Benigno Aquino III signed the young math prodigy’s naturalization paper last August 19, making him the country’s brightest mathematics bet in future international meets.

Aside from acing his Math tests and besting other countries in international Math competitions, here are other amazing facts about this 14-year-old genius:

1. Wu is presently enrolled at the MGC New Life Christian Academy.
2. He was the youngest entry in the 54th International Mathematical Olympiad in 2013 in Santa Marta, Colombia where he was given an honorable mention award.
3. To date, Wu is also the youngest Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad medalist in the country.
4. He won the first Brilliant Live Mathematics Challenge in the United States in 2012, and the Australian Mathematics Competition with a perfect score in the same year.
5. At the 16th Philippine Math Olympiad (NCR Stage) for school year 2013 to 2014, Wu was declared the champion after finishing third (national stage) and second (NCR stage) earlier in the 15th edition of the event for school-year 2012-2013.
6. An article published on the Business Insider tagged Wu as one of the ten smartest kids in the world, mentioning that he began doing math at age one and started trading stocks at age three.
7. Wu was the grand prix winner of the piano prodigy with a perfect pitch for the advanced level of the National Yamaha Piano Competition from 2009, 2010 and 2013.