Date posted: 05/14/2009*

National Champion Awarded Scholarship; Winning Team Invited to Grand Opening of Raytheon’s Math-Based Ride “The Sum of All Thrills”

Bobby Shen of Sugar Land, Texas, was crowned the winner of the 2009 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS® National Competition May 8 at Walt Disney World’s Swan and Dolphin Resort. This year’s winning Mathlete® answered the following math problem in less than 45 seconds:

How many 2 x 2 x 2 cubes must be added to an 8 x 8 x 8 cube to make a 10 x 10 x 10 cube?

The 8^th grader from First Colony Middle School competed against 227 other middle school students in this prestigious competition. Shen was victorious in the intense, one-on-one oral Countdown Round where the top 12 Mathletes® competed for the title. David Yang, a 7^th grader homeschooled in California, was awarded second place with Maximilian Schindler of St. Louis, Mo., and Alan Zhou of Lexington, Mass., advancing to the semi-finals.

As National Champion, Shen won the $8,000 Donald G. Weinert Scholarship and a trip to the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala. Additionally, he and his winning team were invited by William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO, Raytheon Company, to the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., to be his guests for the official opening of “The Sum of All Thrills,” an interactive, math-based ride developed by Raytheon to help instill a lifelong passion for math, science and technology. Part of Raytheon’s MathMovesU initiative, “The Sum of All Thrills” will open this fall at INNOVENTIONS within Disney’s Epcot Center.

In the team competition, Texas captured the title of National Team Champions. In addition to Shen, team members are Yury Aglyamov and Steven Chen of Austin, and Lily Shen and coach Jeff Boyd of Sugar Land. The Missouri team took second place, and the Washington team placed third.

“Every one of the participating Mathletes should be recognized for his or her outstanding achievements following months of dedication and hard work,” said Swanson, 2009 MATHCOUNTS honorary chairman. “We hope these students will build on their passion for math and be recognized for their outstanding efforts going forward. MATHCOUNTS and programs like Raytheon’s MathMovesU are working to motivate the country’s brightest students with the idea that with math, there are no limits.”

David Yang also won an $8,000 scholarship as the Written Round Winner, and Maximilian Schindler won a $6,000 scholarship as Written Round Runner-up. Schindler was also pronounced the Master Round winner and invited by Raytheon to attend “The Sum of All Thrills” ribbon-cutting ceremony. Each team member from first-place Texas won a $2,000 scholarship and trip to U.S. Space Camp.