Albert Ni of Naperville, Illinois won the title of MATHCOUNTS individual national champion at the 2002 MATHCOUNTS National Competition on June 14 in Chicago, Illinois. The eighth-grader from Kennedy Junior High beat 227 other student "Mathletes" at the finals, sponsored by the CNA Foundation.
The top 10 individuals competed in an intense, one-on-one oral "Countdown Round." Ni won the title by correctly answering the final question: "Which is the greatest: 4, 2, (1/8), (-2) or 16." The correct answer is (-2).
The second place individual title was taken by Conner Rogers of Lakewood, Colorado. Jason Trigg of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, claimed the third place individual title.
Students also competed in team competitions. California captured the National Team Championship title. Team members include Yuchen Mao from William Hopkins Junior High in Fremont, Grace Li from Miller Middle School in San Jose, Darren Yin from Redwood Middle School in Saratoga, and David Lee from Redwood Middle School in Saratoga.
The Illinois team took second place, and the New Jersey team placed third.
Albert Ni won a $8,000 college scholarship, courtesy of the General Motors Foundation. Conner Rogers won a $6,000 college scholarship, and Jason Trigg won a $4,000 scholarship. In addition, Ni won a trip to U.S. Space Camp, courtesy of NASA, and a Compaq Evo N115 notebook computer powered by 1Ghz AMD Duron processor, courtesy of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). His coach also received a Compaq notebook Evo N115 computer courtesy of AMD.
Additionally, each team member from the first-place California team won a $2,000 college scholarship, courtesy of The Dow Chemical Company Foundation, trips to U.S. Space Camp, courtesy of NASA and Compaq Evo N115 notebook computers powered by 1Ghz AMD Duron processor, courtesy of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Their coach also received a Compaq notebook Evo N115 computer donated by AMD.
MATHCOUNTS is a nonprofit national coaching and competition program for middle school students, that promotes student interest in mathematics by making math achievement as challenging as a school sport. Since 1983, over five million students have participated in MATHCOUNTS. The 228 Mathletes who competed in the national finals represent more than 500,000 students who have been exposed to MATHCOUNTS at the local and state levels. MATHCOUNTS brings together educators, youth, industry sponsors and volunteers.