Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
October 26, 2011

Five projects from the 2011 Mathworks Honor Summer Math Camp at Texas State University-San Marcos were honored during the first round of the 2011 Siemens Competition Oct. 21.

Fourteen high school students, mentored by Texas State faculty, were recognized for the five research projects, which earned two regional finalists and three regional semifinalists awards. This continues the HSMC's tradition of advanced students working with Texas State faculty mentors, producing original math and science research.

The regional finalist teams, which will advance to the next round of competition, are:

• "On the Acyclic Subgraphs of k-majority Tournaments," Students: Alexandra Ilic, Bobby Shen, and Lilly Shen; Mentored by Jian Shen, Texas State Department of Mathematics
• "Determining the Existence of Graceful Valuations of Various Families of Graphs," Students: Kevin Tian, Kevin Chang, and Andrew Xu; Mentored by Edward Early, St. Edward's University Department of Mathematics

The semifinalist teams are:

• "A Generalization of Sperner's Theorem for Multisets," Students: Steven Chen, Amy Kang and Jeremy Kalas; Mentored by Eugene Curtin, Texas State Department of Mathematics
• "Computing Spatio-Temporal Data with Applications to Hurricane Analysis," Students: Ding Zhou and Jessica Wang; Mentored by Mark McKenney, Texas State Department of Computer Science
• "A Mathematical Model of Structural Behaviors and Physical Properties of Polymer Nanocomposites," Students: George Qi, Catherine Liu and Linda Zhang; Mentored by Gary Beall, Texas State Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The regional finalists will compete at one of six Siemens Competition partnering universities in the coming weeks. Winners from each regional competition will advance to the national finals in Washington D.C.

Over the past 11 years, 42 research projects conducted by HSMC students have been recognized by the Siemens Competition.

About Mathworks

Mathworks is a mathematics education center at Texas State University-San Marcos with core programs of summer math camps, teacher training and curriculum development. The Mathworks Junior Summer Math Camp and Honors Summer Math Camp are nationally recognized as one of the premier programs in the country. For more information about the camps, and other Mathworks programs, see www.txstate.edu/mathworks.

About the Siemens Competition

The Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology recognizes remarkable talent early on, fostering individual growth for high school students who are willing to challenge themselves through science research. Through this competition, students have an opportunity to achieve national recognition for science research projects that they complete in high school. It is administered by the College Board and funded by the Siemens Foundation. Up to 300 projects from almost 2,000 submissions are recognized as semifinalists, while the top 30 individual and 30 team projects are invited to compete in the regional competitions, held at six partner universities.