Students Win Gold at International Math and Science Event
Team represents the United States at the 16th annual International Conference of Young Scientists
May 11, 2009
– Each of the four Phillips Academy students who competed at the 16th annual International Conference of Young Scientists in Pszczyna, Poland, on April 25 and 26 were awarded gold medals for their 20-minute presentations on topics in either mathematics or science. Representing the United States in the competition were Tony Feng ’09 of Avon, Conn., Arun Saigal ’09 of Burlington, Mass., Valeria Fedyk ’10 of Phoenix, Ariz., and Scott Fleming ’10 of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Each year, the ICYS invites gifted secondary school students from around the globe to develop a research project of their choosing in mathematics, science, or computer science and to explain their findings in a 20-minute presentation before a panel of judges composed of university professors and high school teachers. Under the guidance of PA math instructor and team leader Donald T. Barry, the four students competed against 110 other young adults from 15 different countries. Their projects were as follows:
- Tony Feng – Mathematics. Feng discussed his work in combinatorics, the branch of mathematics dealing with combinations of objects belonging to a finite set according to certain restrictions. Starting with a problem given to him by a mathematics professor, Feng proved a number of preliminary results that may one day contribute to a solution to the problem.
- Arun Saigal – Environmental Science. Saigal’s project, which tied for the number one ranking in environmental science projects, demonstrated his research in breaking up and recombining DNA.
- Valeria Fedyk and Scott Fleming – Physics. Fedyk and Fleming teamed up to illustrate how information can be determined about a binary star system through an analysis of the eclipses associated with such a system. Their project placed first in the physics category.
“I was particularly pleased to meet scientifically inclined students from all over the world and share with them my own discoveries on variable stars,” said Fedyk, who hopes to present more research in the future. “I hope these four gold medals demonstrate Andover students’ serious commitment to mathematics and science.”
Due to their flight schedule, the four students missed the closing ceremony on April 27. Team leader Barry stayed behind and was delighted when the awards for the United States were presented. “The awards were handed out alphabetically, so the United States was last, and so far as I could tell, the medals had all been given out,” said Barry. “Up on stage the lights were so bright that it was impossible to see the audience, but it only got brighter when they handed me those four medals.”