Two HSMC teams recognized in the regional level of the Siemens Competition

Nov. 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Two teams from the Mathworks Honors Summer Math Camp (HSMC) competed this past weekend at the University of Texas at Austin in the regional level of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology. Going head to head against three other teams were the teams of:

1.   Alexandra Ilic, Kevin Tian, and Ignacio Ramirez
2.   George Qi and Shenhao (Daniel) Wang

The five competitors were each rewarded with a  $1,000 college scholarship for their original mathematics research.  Ilic, Tian, Qi, and Wang are from Austin, while Ramirez hails from Forth Worth.  All five students attended the 2010 HSMC conducted at Texas State University, and worked on research projects under the guidance of Texas State University mathematics faculty.  Dr. Nathaniel Dean mentored the three-member team’s project titled, “On the Power Dominating Set of Various Classes of Graphs” and Dr. Weizhen Gu mentored Qi and Wang’s project of “Attainability of the chromatic numbers of functigraphs.”

After being selected as two of the top 30 team projects in the nation by the Siemens Competition, the teams were invited to compete in the regional competition held at UT-Austin.  The busy weekend included a public poster session, a 12 -minute presentation, and a closed-door Q&A session with 10 judges.

Even though neither of the two teams advanced to the national level of the Siemens Competition, the students truly appreciated the experience and this first taste of mathematics research.  “This experience has really whetted my appetite for research,” said Wang, a junior at Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin.  “This competition was a phenomenal experience. I met a lot of new people and learned a lot of new things,” said Ilic, a junior at Westlake High School in Austin.

To date, the Mathworks HSMC has had 37 team projects recognized in the Siemens Competition, including 4 national finalist and 13 regional finalist teams.  To view a full listing of the projects, visit http://www.txstate.edu/mathworks/camps/hsmc/Siemens_Compe...

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Mathworks is a center for mathematics education at Texas State University - San Marcos. The Mathworks mission is to develop model programs and self-sustaining learning communities that engage K-12 students in doing mathematics at a high level. Our programs include Summer Math Camps, Teacher Training, and Curriculum Development. For more information, see http://www.txstate.edu/mathworks