Students who qualified at the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (TAME) area competition Jan. 31 advanced to compete in the 30th annual state competition May 2 at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics campus in Fort Worth. More than 290 students from across the state from grades 6-12 qualified to compete.

The three students who won in their respective categories are: Riti Srivastava (9), second place in Algebra 2 and third place in the engineering team design; Cathy Nguyen (10), first place in Chemistry and Sam Mokhtar (12), first place in Calculus and first place in AP Physics.

“I was super shocked when they called my name since I didn’t think I would be first since I only placed fourth at area,” Nguyen said. “I jumped out of my seat since I got to accept the award from an alumni at my dream school (John Hopkins).”

The schedule for the state competition was the same as area’s. Each student first tested individually in the math competition and then science depending on the math and science class they are studying in school. Afterwards, the team engineering took place.

Even though Nguyen is interested in medicine, both the medical and engineering fields science is a major component, and she enjoys anything that promotes the sciences. She also enjoys the team design challenges.

“The design challenges are stressful because we are forced to work with a group,” Nguyen said. “That is an experience you will have to face no matter what field you go into.”

At the ceremony, the top five students in each test won awards, as well as the top five teams in the engineering challenge. There were three additional teams from the engineering challenge that were awarded for their creativity, teamwork and originality.