Wang is SE math champ
The PSCC math team, of which he was a member, also placed first in the region.
Wang is a KCHS senior who has completed 10 hours of college credit.
“I like to do any type of math competitions, and this one was quite similar to the other ones I’ve taken,” said Wang, who is applying to four-year colleges now with his sights set on University of Chicago, according to a PSCC press release. “I don’t know what I will do when I grow up, but I really enjoy theoretical physics and cooking. I also want to write a book.”
Wang, a native of China where his parents still live, resides near KCHS with his grandmother, and has an uncle, Jihua Chen, and other relatives in Farragut whom he hasn’t seen since the COVID-19 pandemic began, he said.
In a separate interview, Wang didn’t brag on his accomplishment but did note, “The only good thing about it is I beat one of my “calc 3” classmates, Forest Chen, who actually went to Farragut before he got into Vandy.
“He’s really smart, and I got really lucky in the first round and answered one more correct number theory problem than him,” Wang added. “All of our other answers were exactly the same.”
This was the first time the college has placed first in the Southeast, as well as having the highest-placing student.
“We were 20th nationally, which also is the highest we have been,” said associate professor Robert “Bobby” Jackson, who coordinates the annual competition for PSCC.
The Student Mathematics League competition is sponsored by the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges and is comprised of two rounds: one in the fall and one in the spring.
Pellissippi State held the second round of the 2019-2020 competition on March 13, the last day students were on campus due to the pandemic. They tested in the Goins Building Auditorium and another classroom so they could adhere to social distancing guidelines, Jackson noted.
“The first round of the contest was last year this time,” Wang said. ”I was taking calc 3 as a junior in high school. That was because I took AB calc freshman year and BC calc my sophomore year. I needed calc 3 to learn electricity and magnetism. The next semester, I did the second round of the competition while I was taking linear algebra and differential equations online.
“This year I’m doing intro to abstract math at (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), which is some simple analysis, and electricity and magnetism at (PSCC).”
The five highest ranking teams, as well as the team and individual champions from each of AMATYC’s eight regions, typically receive plaques at AMATYC’s annual conference each fall, although this year’s event was held virtually.
However, the 2020-2021 competition has been canceled due to the pandemic.
