NEWARK--Friday, February 20, 1998--The four-member team from the NJIT Chapter of the Hispanic Organization of Science and Technology/Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (HOST/SHPE) won 2nd place in the National Science Olympiad, held Feb. 4-7 in Orlando, Fla.
The Olympiad was part of the HOST/SHPE 20th Annual National Technical and Career Conference. NJIT was the defending national champion entering the competition.
The team of Priya Singh, Omar Rodriguez, Rene Yandun (team captain), and Edward Komenda combined to compete against the five other regional winners including teams from University of California-Berkeley and Rice University.
In November, the NJIT team won the regional championship defeating teams from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Penn State University, Drexel University, and Stevens Institute of Technology.
At the conference, NJIT was awarded "Outstanding Chapter" in Region 4 for Academic Year 1996-1997. Yandun was named the Dupont scholarship winner for Highest Academic Achievement for Region 4.
The competition format resembles the TV game-show "Jeopardy." Questions are based on the Engineering in Training examination and assigned a point value based on the degree of difficulty. The competitors must respond to the computerized questions within 15 seconds. In the final round of play, the teams can wager all their points accumulated during the match, making the Olympiad a game of speed and strategy as well as knowledge.
Yandun, of Belleville, N.J. has competed in the college bowl for the last 3 years, and was a member of the 1997 national championship team. He is currently the president of Eta Kapp Nu, the NJIT chapter of the National Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering Honor Society, and works at NJIT's Center for Communication and Signal Processing Research.
Komenda, of Newark, N.J. is the president of PolSA, the Polish Student Association, and is also a Student Senate representative.
Rodriguez, of Jersey City, N.J., is the fund-raising chairperson for Pi Tau Sigma, the Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, and a member of the American Association of Mechanical Engineers.
Singh, of Sayreville, N.J., is the president of the National Engineering Honor Society at NJIT, of which all four are members. Singh also is a member of Omega Chi Epsilon, the Chemical Engineering Honor Society.
NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in 76 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science. U.S. News and World Report's 1998 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT among the top 175 national universities. Money Magazine's Best College Buys 1998 rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology schools.
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