Dennis Riedesel, center, a UHV associate professor of education, shows off a little math-based magic to students Arturo Foneca, left, of Calhoun High School in Port Lavaca, and Kendle Patek of St. Paul High School in Shiner during the Math and Computer Science Day at the University of Houston-Victoria.

Calhoun High School students took the top prizes Thursday at the University of Houston-Victoria/The Victoria College Math and Computer Science Awareness Day contests and won scholarships to both schools.

Jennifer Hsu, a senior at Calhoun High School, won first place Thursday in the math contest at Math and Computer Science Awareness Day at the University of Houston-Victoria.

Senior Jennifer Hsu won first place in the individual math contest, which earned her $500 scholarships from both UHV and VC.

Sophomore Daniel Liaou won the individual overall first-place prize in computer science, with its award of $500 UHV and VC scholarships, and also won a special prize of a $50 Sam’s Club gift card for best overall individual performance in all contests.

Second-prize winners won $500 scholarships to VC, and all winners received trophies and certificates.

Daniel Liaou, a sophomore at Calhoun High School, won first place in the computer science contest Thursday at Math and Computer Science Awareness Day at the University of Houston-Victoria.

Students in the events took written math and computer science tests that were scored in teams and individually.

The approximately 60 contestants, along with other students who participated in the event, attended seminars about mathematic illusions and programming teleporters in computer games. They also had a pizza party and listened to guest speaker Don Brubaker, sports director for local TV station KAVU. VC President Tom Butler and Holly Verhasselt, executive assistant to the UHV provost, also addressed the students. This year’s theme was “Math and Computer Science in Sports.”

“I want to thank our UHV faculty members for their fantastic sessions,” said Meledeth Damodaran, event organizer and a UHV assistant professor of mathematics. “They were some of the best we’ve had in the history of this event, and the students absolutely loved them.”

Alireza Tavakkoli, an UHV assistant professor of computer science, compressed what normally would be a semester-long topic of game design into a 35-minute session that proved so popular a third session had to be scheduled for contestants, Damodaran said.

And Dennis Riedesel, a UHV associate professor of education, kept students mystified with his session demonstrating the role math plays in magic and illusions, Damodaran said.

The other prize winners at the event were:


MATH

Team Awards 

First - Daniel Liaou, Grace Gee, Jennifer Hu and John Gee of Calhoun High School

Second – Ansel Hoang, Christian Wenske, Sahil Parikh and Ashley Mutchler of St. Joseph High School

Third – Theo Boozalis, Jaclyn Boozalis, Stephanie Kasper and Shaleen Vasavada of St. Joseph High School

Individual Awards

Freshman – First, John Gee, Calhoun; second, James Hsu, Calhoun; third, Leticia Vasquez, Memorial High School

Sophomore – First, Christian Wenske, St. Joseph; second, David Tai, Memorial; third, Daniel Liaou, Calhoun

Junior – First, Ansel Hoang, St. Joseph; second, Grace Gee, Calhoun; third, Stephanie Kasper, St. Joseph

Senior – First, Jennifer Hsu, Calhoun; second, Sahil Parikh, St. Joseph; third, Jacob Motl, Memorial

Individual Overall Winners

First – Jennifer Hsu, Calhoun

Second – Ansel Hoang, St. Joseph

Third – Christian Wenske, St. Joseph

Fourth – Grace Gee, Calhoun

Fifth – David Tai, Memorial

Sixth – Stephanie Kasper, St. Joseph

COMPUTER SCIENCE

Team Awards

First – Daniel Liaou, Tyler Anderson, Jennifer Hsu and John Gee of Calhoun High School

Second – Patrick Aupperle, Robert Ordonez, Harrison Garrett and John Nunez of Memorial High School

Third – Tori Lev, Mary Sharp, Deborah Lin and Melissa Clark of Memorial High School

Individual Overall Winners

First – Daniel Liaou, Calhoun

Second – John Gee, Calhoun

Third - Jennifer Hsu, Calhoun

Fourth – Harrison Garrett, Memorial

Fifth – Robert Ordonez, Memorial

Sixth – Patrick Aupperle, Memorial