Almost 600 students from 46 Tennessee high schools converged on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus Wednesday to compete in the University of Tennessee-Pro2Serve Math Contest.
The top 10 individual contest winners received four-year, $4,000 scholarships to UT Knoxville. Winners were Katherine Xue, Stephen Mandry and Yajit Jain of Oak Ridge High School; Dennis Meng of Farragut High School; Zipeng Jiang of The King’s Academy, Seymour; and Johnathan Luna, a home-schooled student from Maryville.
Other winners were Zhexiang Wu, Chi Zhang and Matthew Ashner of White Station High School, Memphis; and Dallas Simmons of Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School, Nashville.
The scholarships are funded by the office of UT Knoxville Chancellor Loren Crabtree and can be used for any major at the campus. Winners were chosen based on their scores on an essay-type exam that tested their knowledge on Algebra I and II and geometry.
The contest also featured a Math Bowl, double-elimination team competition. White Station High School was the overall winner of the Math Bowl followed by Oak Ridge High School. First place in the small-school category went to Memphis University School with second place going to Pope John Paul II High School, Hendersonville.
All winners received trophies, plaques and certificates in recognition of excellence at different stages of the competition.
The University of Tennessee Mathematics Department and Oak Ridge-based Pro2Serve Professional Project Services, Inc. (www.p2s.com) sponsored the contest, now in its ninth year.