SJHS team advances to MATHCOUNT state finals

14 middle school teams in the Capital Region competed in the regional qualifiers of the national MATHCOUNTS program on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at GE’s Research Center in Niskayuna. The regional competition was organized by GE Volunteers and the Capital District Chapter of the NYS Society of Professional Engineers.

Following Saturday’s competition, the top three teams advancing to the state MATHCOUNT finals for the team competition at the RPI Campus in Troy, NY are:

• Shaker Junior High
• Iroquois Middle School
• Van Antwerp Middle School

Students from the top three school teams, along with the top two individuals not on a qualifying team, also will compete as individuals in the State finals. The top three individual winners from the regional qualifiers are noted below as well.  Here are the local Mathletes advancing to the next round:

• Harry Shen (1st), Andrew Kang, Connor Mitchell, and Ivyann Shen from Shaker Junior High School
• James Lian, Kyle Markham, Caleb Pack and Jesse Angrist from Iroquois
• Grace Sun, Jake Wang, Manami Kerins and Smyan Sengupta from Van Antwerp
• Jaeho Lee (2nd) and Forest Gao (3rd) from Acadia Middle School

The Shaker Junior High School team consisted of Andrew Kang, Ishan Khambete, Connor Mitchell, Harry Shen, Ivyann Shen, Siyeong Song, Micaela Tahoe, Sreeram Vudayagiri, Jason Zhang and Teresa Zhang.

Four North Colonie students also competed in a “Countdown Round”, where they competed for individual trophies. The four students were Micaela Tahoe (10th overall), Teresa Zhang (9th overall), Ivyann Shen (4th overall and 3rd in countdown round) and Harry Shen (1st overall and countdown round).

Shourya Sarcar, Technology Manager for Computer Vision Technologies at GE Research, was the featured speaker during the awards ceremony.  He encouraged the Mathletes to look beyond the formulas, numbers and equations to discover math’s true power in fundamentally understanding how the world works, stating, “It is great to have top grades. It is awesome to be able to do math at lightning speed, but don’t lose sight of the ultimate quest – using Math to find out the “WHY” – to understand why the world behaves the way it does.”

Sarcar continued, “We were proud to again partner with the Capital District Chapter of the NYS Society of Professional Engineers to host this year’s MATHCOUNTS regional qualifiers. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and to all of the 99 Mathletes that came out to compete this weekend at GE Research.”

Following the State finals, the top four individuals from across New York State will win an all-expenses paid trip to compete in National Competition, which is taking place in Orlando, Florida from May 11-14, 2019.  These students will compete individually and form a State team to represent New York State in the competition versus other states.

In its 36th year, MATHCOUNTS is a nationwide program designed to improve math skills among U.S. students in a way that’s fun and engaging. Sponsors target middle school students, who are at a critical stage in developing and sustaining math interest and ability.

Preparations for the competition with teachers and students have been underway since the fall. Students compete individually and as teams in written and fast-paced oral matches. Subjects include algebra, probability, statistics and geometry.

The 2019 MATHCOUNTS competition consists of 500 local chapters from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and Department of Defense and State Department affiliated schools.

Category: Archive, District News, SJHS