On October 18, 2013, two University High School (UHS) students, Daniel Shaw (Sr.) and Vinson Luo (Sr.), were announced
 semifinalists of the Siemens Competition. The Siemens Competition is
 an annual, nationwide competition through which students from kindergarten 
to twelfth grade submit research projects involving math,
 science and technology. The Siemens Foundation hosts the competition
 and awards national recognition and scholarships to finalists and
 semifinalists.
Semifinalist Daniel Shaw’s project was “Multi-Agent Monte
Carlo Equilibrium.” For his project, Shaw said he “introduced a new algorithm that generalizes certain methods in random sampling,” 
allowing for a “more accurate and diverse set of solutions.” Shaw 
credits many mentors for his achievement, including Mr. Tim Smay 
(Science Dept.) for helping him build a strong foundation in the early 
developmental stage of his project and Dr. James Li for helping
 him complete the project. Shaw said, “I am extremely fortunate to achieve 
this award” and recommends students planning to enter
 the Siemens Competition in the future,  “to start
 [their] projects early.”
Semifinalist Vinson Luo’s project was “Determining Object
 Relations from Image Data Through the Use of Visual and Textual
 Factors.” Luo created a method to predict relationships between 
objects in an image. Luo said “my project is part of a larger field
 called computer vision whose long term goal is to use computer
 algorithms and programming techniques to convert image data into 
readable, fluent text.” When asked how he feels about being a
 semifinalist, Luo said “it’s truly one of the highest honors for
 a research project that one can receive in high school. I feel
 more encouraged to pursue scientific research and enter into other
research competitions as well.” Luo recommends UHS students
 to enter the Siemens Competition because, “The experience 
of designing an experiment and writing a full length research paper is
 valuable for anyone interested in pursuing math or science in the
 future.”
Written by MONICA LAFERLA
Staff Writer