Still More High-Achieving FIU Students in the News

Three Ph.D. students in the College of Engineering have received special recognitions in recent weeks. Tapas Laha and Kantesh Balani were selected for the Arthur E. Flocke LeaderShape Award given by the American Society for Materials International to young people worldwide pursuing careers in materials science and engineering. The prestigious award is given annually to just six students, making the achievements of FIU’s students all the more impressive. As part of the award, the pair will spend one week at the University of Illinois taking a course to develop skills deemed valuable to their career success. Another Engineering student, Joan Shen, is one of only 20 top graduate transportation students nationwide selected to attend the Eno Transportation Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C., in May.

Three undergraduate Mathematics majors together made an excellent showing at the 2003 Putnam Mathematical Competition. The team of Anca Vacarescu, Alejandro Presto and Dennis Ledis ranked 28th out of 401 institutions taking part in the contest. More than 3,600 individuals participated in two 3-hour sessions that consisted of six problems each. To give an indication of the difficulty of the problems on the exam, organizers point out that the maximum possible score is 120 points and that every year the median score is between one and two points—that is, approximately half of the participants score less than two points.

This year’s results are the best FIU has ever posted.