Northview Senior to Take Math Skills to National Contest

Sitan “Stan” Chen has done it again. The senior at has won the individual category of the Siemens Competition regionals for the second year in a row and will advance to the national round in Washington D.C. in early December.

Chen entered his project, "On the Rank Number of Grid Graphs," in the regional Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology that took place at Georgia Tech in early November and won the individual category and a $3,000 college scholarship.

The Siemens Competition is a science research competition for high school students. Some 1,541 projects submitted, with 317 students named semifinalists and 96 named regional finalists. Entries were judged at the regional level by scientists at six leading research universities that host competitions, including Georgia Tech. 

Chen's project focuses on how to build the most efficient electronic products, such as cell phones and computers, by using the best circuits possible.

"My problem gives us the least amount of time we need to find errors in computers and data structure – instead of execting one task, multiple tasks are executed all at the same time, giving us the best solution possible," Chen said. "These methods help us make the best possible circuits we can."

Stan said he chose his project because of its simplicity. "I chose it because it is easy to explain even to someone who is not into mathematics. Its elegant simplicity is fascinating and it has real-world applications."

You can follow the Siemens Foundation on Twitter (www.twitter.com/sfoundation) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/SiemensFoundation) and visit www.siemens-foundation.org at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 5 for a live webcast of the national finalist awards presentation.