Ward Melville High School Team 15041 demonstrated exceptional mathematical prowess in the prestigious High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling this year. Photo courtesy the Three Village Central School District
Two teams of students from Ward Melville High School demonstrated exceptional mathematical prowess in the prestigious High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM), earning top distinctions in an international field of competitors.
Ward Melville High School Team 15702 demonstrated exceptional mathematical prowess in the prestigious High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling this year. Photo courtesy the Three Village Central School District.
The HiMCM, an esteemed competition that challenges teams of up to four students to develop mathematical models addressing real-world problems, emphasizes critical problem solving, collaboration and clear communication. This year’s competition saw participation from 1,055 teams representing 474 schools across 20 countries and regions.
Ward Melville High School was proudly represented by Team 15041, consisting of Amanda Liang, Sarah Wu and Victoria Ye, and by Team 15702, including Tina Xing and Anna Xing. Both teams achieved remarkable success in the competition. Team 15702 earned the Finalist designation, placing them in the top 5% of all participating teams. Team 15041 attained the highest honor of Outstanding Winner, a distinction awarded to only eight teams worldwide and placing them in the top 1% of all competitors. Notably, among these eight Outstanding Winners, only three hailed from the United States, including Team 15041 from Ward Melville and a team from Stuyvesant High School in New York State.
The success of these teams highlights the strength of Ward Melville’s mathematics program and the commitment of its students and faculty to excellence in STEM education. Congratulations to Team 15041 and Team 15702 for their extraordinary accomplishments.
Amanda Liang with the winning bridge design.
Photo by Kevin Coughlin/BNL
Amanda Liang, a ninth grader from Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School in Setauket, won first place at the 45th annual Bridge Building Competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory on April 3.
The competition shows students in grades nine through 12 what it’s like to be an engineer as they attempt to design a strong bridge out of only basswood and glue with a set of challenging specifications in mind. Their structures were put to the test under a crushing machine that slowly added more and more weight from above until the bridges broke or bent more than one inch.
The event is organized by Brookhaven Lab’s Office of Educational Programs (OEP) to advance its mission to cultivate the next generation of STEM professionals.
Julia Pincott won second place for her bridge design. Photo courtesy of John Glenn High School
“I want you to imagine your future selves as professional engineers and you’re contributing something important to society,” Bernadette Uzzi, OEP’s manager for K-12 programs told students at the start of the competition. “Perhaps you’re designing a bridge, and you have to continually refine the structure to adapt to our ever-changing world, or maybe you’re here at Brookhaven involved in constructing our new Electron-Ion Collider, which is a ground-breaking machine that will unravel the mysteries of nature’s strongest force. Regardless of your future career plans, today you are engineering students and you’re part of Brookhaven’s journey.”
Uzzi also reflected on the recent bridge collapse in Baltimore: “I’m reminded why it’s so important to give students real-world, relevant experiential learning experiences like this event.”
This year, students from 14 schools around Long Island submitted 240 bridges — 193 of which met all qualifications for testing such as using a symmetrical design and weighing under 25 grams.
Bridges are ranked based on efficiency scores that are calculated from the load the bridge supports divided by the mass of the bridge — all in grams.
Liang’s design earned the top spot with an efficiency of 3,441.43.
“I looked at a bunch of old national bridges and I took a lot of inspiration from them,” Liang said, adding later, “I was really excited especially because it was my first year. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I didn’t expect this.”
Alexander Song and Daniel Liang, both juniors from Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, took second place and third place with efficiencies of 2,536.142 and 2,112.446, respectively.
The top two winners in Brookhaven’s regional competition qualified to compete in the International Bridge Contest on April 27 in New Philadelphia, Ohio.
Competition judges also issued an award for aesthetic bridge design to Julia Pincott, a senior at John Glenn High School in Elwood.
Some of the bridges entered into the competition. Photo from BNL
Throughout the bridge testing day, students had the chance to meet engineers from across the Lab, including longtime contest volunteers and Jordanna Kendrot, a safety engineer at the DOE-Brookhaven Site Office. Kendrot shared how in her own path to becoming a researcher, she found it was important to expand her studies beyond only engineering courses.
“It’s really about broadening your horizons and questioning the norms in engineering that will help us keep moving forward,” Kendrot said.
Amid all the bridge crushing, competition organizers tossed Brookhaven Lab and science trivia questions to students, who had a chance to win Lab merchandise for their correct answers.
Competitors tested their engineering skills in an additional STEM challenge to construct a miniature floating table. Students were also treated to a tour of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a DOE Office of Science user facility that creates light beams 10 billion times brighter than the sun.
“This year’s bridge contest was a new experience for everyone,” STEM educator and event co-coordinator Theresa Grimaldi said. “It was the first time OEP organized this contest to be during school hours and it was such a pleasure to have the students here for the whole day, getting to know the engineers and touring the site.”
Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.
