High school student mentored at OU wins $30,000 scholarship

By Dan Bodene, contributing writer

A Farmington Hills, Mich., high school student who studied at Oakland University last summer recently won a $30,000 college scholarship in a national competition.

Allen Yuan was named a national finalist in the 2010 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, described as the premier science research competition for high school students in the United States. His mathematics project was entitled, "Linearly Many Faults in (n,k)-star Graphs."

Yuan is a student at Detroit Country Day in Bloomfield Hills and worked over the summer with Eddie Cheng, Ph.D., professor and chair of OU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

“In the study of parallel computing, it is important to study how processors should be linked so that the cost is low and it is resilient to processor failure. In the project, Allen did work in this regard and found that even with a high number of failed processors, the core of the network will still be intact,” said Dr. Cheng.

“Oakland University’s research program has helped me immensely in achieving my goals in research mathematics,” said Yuan. “As with all research at the high school level, collaboration and mentorship is absolutely essential. Dr. Eddie Cheng guided me, always allowing ample space for my creativity to grow on the project, but directing it when necessary. The faculty’s amazing knowledge and ability allowed cutting edge research to be done.”

Yuan plans to attend the 2011 Oakland’s Summer Mathematics Institute, directed by Dr. Cheng. The institute provides opportunities for pre-college students to work with OU faculty and take college-credit math classes. For more information, visit the website.

Yuan also is an accomplished pianist and won both the Gold Medal and the Audience Prize in the 2010 Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition. He plans to study mathematics and piano performance in college.

The Siemens Competition is a signature program of the Siemens Foundation, and was launched in 1998 to recognize America's best and brightest math and science students. This year, 2,033 students registered to enter the competition. More than 90 were named regional finalists, representing 36 states. Six individuals and six teams competed in the national finals after being named regional winners.

For more information about programs in OU's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, view the website.