The Louisiana Tech University Mathematics and Statistics program held its fifth annual Integration Bee April 19.
Each Integration Bee begins with a qualification round, consisting of a timed 25-question paper test, after which the top 16 scoring participants move to a tournament round. The 2021 tournament consisted of five rounds, in which students competed for Amazon, Chili’s, Chick-Fil-A, and Starbucks gift cards in one-on-one challenges. For each challenge, a pair of students stood at whiteboards and each worked to quickly solve complex integrals in a high-pressure atmosphere.
This year’s Master Integrator was Elizabeth McDowell, physics and aviation freshman and first-ever female Integration Bee champion.
Louisiana Tech University electrical engineering sophomore Julia Everett placed second at the 2021 Integration Bee held by the Louisiana-Mississippi Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
Everett was one of roughly thirty competitors who participated in the event, which was hosted virtually by Delta State University due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Everett, along with five other Louisiana Tech students, Tarandaas Anand (biomedical engineering), Avereigh Barras (mechanical engineering), Jacob Boyt (physics), Brady Duplessis (chemical engineering), and Timothy Oliver (computer science and geographic information science) represented the University at the competition.
Dr. Shanaz Tiwari, lecturer of mathematics and statistics at Louisiana Tech, recruited the students two weeks before the event. Shortly after the students were recruited, Louisiana Tech’s campuses were closed due to a snowstorm that kept students, staff, and faculty from the University for a week.