Local Math Students Invited to Compete in National ARML
May 30, 2001--Three local students from Urbana High School (UHS) have been
invited to participate in the American Regions Math League (ARML) as
members of the Indiana state team. ARML is an annual
national mathematics competition in which teams of 15 high school students
represent their city, state, county, or school in competing amongst the
best students from the United States and Canada.
This year, ARML will be held on June 2, 2001, and will occur
simultaneously at three sites: The University of Iowa, The Pennsylvania
State University, and San Jose State University. The event consists of
Team, Power, Individual, and Relay rounds and usually takes place the
first Saturday after Memorial Day. Wolfram Research has covered expenses
for the UHS students to participate at the Iowa site.
The three students, Yana Malysheva, Luis Mendes, and Ho Young Whang, were
asked to participate based upon their outstanding performance in other
regional and statewide math competitions this year, specifically by
organizers of the Rose-Hulman High School Mathematics Contest in which the UHS math team
placed third overall. Young Whang and Malysheva, who are both recent UHS
graduates, were also members of the UHS eight-person, Junior-Senior team
that took second place in both the ICTM Regional and the ICTM State Math
Contests.
 |
| Left to right: Barb Taub of Wolfram
Research, UHS math teacher
Mary Klein, Ho Young Whang, and Luis Mendes |
"This is a nice chance for us to offer some local support that is in
keeping with our corporate mission of promoting excellence in mathematics
education," says Barb Taub, Director of Human Resources for Wolfram
Research. Wolfram Research previously sponsored Malysheva, who plans to
study mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(UIUC), at the USA
Mathcamp in 1999.
While their mathematics capabilities are nothing short of exceptional,
these students still have most of the same concerns as their peers. Young
Whang, who says he likes math because "it's simple and logical," will be
majoring in computer engineering at UIUC this fall. He is "some part
excited" about being on his own and some part concerned about handling all
of the "basic things parents do for you, like laundry."
Although school will be letting out just days after ARML, Mendes, the
youngest ARML participant, won't be taking much of a break from studying.
He will be attending summer school to work towards an early graduation
like his older teammates, while in his free time playing a little soccer
and doing "what everyone else does--watch television."
| |
