Texas crowned top state MATHCOUNTS® team

ORLANDO, Fla., May 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Channing Yang, a 13-year-old seventh grader from Sugar Land, Texas, solved his way to victory over 222 competitors, becoming the 2023 Raytheon Technologies MATHCOUNTS National Champion following an intense, elite competition at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista this weekend. As the National Champion, Channing will receive the $20,000 Donald G. Weinert College Scholarship.

Channing squared off against his opponents in the final round of the 2023 Raytheon Technologies MATHCOUNTS National Competition by answering the question: "Erika cuts one pound of fudge into pieces to share with her friends. She divides the fudge into seven small pieces and three large pieces. If each large piece is three times as large as each small piece, how many pounds does one of the large pieces weigh?" during the Countdown Round, in which the top 12 Mathletes in the country competed in head-to-head matchups. He calculated the correct answer, three-sixteenths, in just seven seconds.

Oron Wang, 14, of Short Hills, New Jersey, was the Countdown Round Runner-Up and won a $7,500 scholarship. The remaining Countdown Round participants were:

• Edward Chen, an eighth grader from Carmel, Ind.
• Varun Gadi, an eighth grader from Johns Creek, Ga.
• Adam Ge, an eighth grader from Lexington, Mass.
• Selena Ge, a seventh grader from Lexington, Mass.
• Jason Lee, a seventh grader from Durham, N.C.
• Seabert Mao, an eighth grader from Saratoga, Calif.
• Liam Reddy, an eighth grader from Las Vegas, Nev.
• Ashvin Sinha, an eighth grader from Tallahassee, Fla.
• Alex Sun, an eighth grader from Sugar Land, Texas
• Roger Zhen, a seventh grader from Houston, Texas

In the team competition, Texas captured the title of First Place Team. Team members include:

• Kevin Chen, an eighth grader from Sugar Land, Texas
• Alex Sun, an eighth grader from Sugar Land, Texas
• Channing Yang, a seventh grader from Sugar Land, Texas
• Roger Zhen, a seventh grader from Houston, Texas

The Florida state team took second place, and the Massachusetts state team placed third.

Channing was among 223 competitors from all 50 states as well as U.S. territories and schools that serve the U.S. State and Defense departments, who traveled to Orlando after earning a spot in the national competition. More than 30,000 students participated in the local and state competitions that led to this weekend's event, the 39th in the MATHCOUNTS Foundation's history.

This year's event theme revolved around movies and red carpets to place Mathletes on par with celebrities and celebrate math as a crucial skill for society's success. The event highlighted film, animation and music to emphasize that math can be used in an array of creative fields, just like how the movie Hidden Figures showed how math was used to help NASA launch its first successful space missions.

"These Mathletes are the kind of problem solvers who will inspire a bright future for all of us," said Kristen Chandler, executive director of MATHCOUNTS. "I can't wait to see what incredible feats they accomplish with the skills they've developed and displayed during their time in MATHCOUNTS."

This is the 14^th year that Raytheon Technologies has served as title sponsor of the MATHCOUNTS National Competition as part of its global commitment to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

"Making it to the MATHCOUNTS National Competition is a great accomplishment and a testament to the students' perseverance, creativity and problem-solving skills," said Tracey Gray, vice president, Communications and External Affairs for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a Raytheon Technologies business. "Congratulations to Channing and all the competitors who put their skills to the test in this year's competition."

Media Contact:
Alyssa Shaffer
alyssa.shaffer@rtx.com

About MATHCOUNTS Foundation

MATHCOUNTS is a nonprofit organization that strives to engage middle school students of all ability and interest levels in fun, challenging math programs, in order to expand their academic and professional opportunities. Middle school students exist at a critical juncture in which their love for mathematics must be nurtured, or their fear of mathematics must be overcome. For more than 30 years, MATHCOUNTS has provided free, high-quality resources to educators and enriching, extracurricular opportunities to students to lay a foundation for future success. Materials and information are available at www.mathcounts.org.

About Raytheon Technologies

Raytheon Technologies is the world's largest aerospace and defense company. Our global team of 180,000 employees pushes the limits of known science and redefines how we connect and protect our world. We are advancing aviation, building smarter defense systems and creating innovations to take us deeper into space. The company, with 2022 sales of $67 billion, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

 

SOURCE Raytheon Technologies