Volunteer judges who represented the Council of Texas Statisticians at the 2011 ExxonMobil Texas Science and Engineering Fair. Front, from left: Keying Ye, Michael Lecocke, David Han, and Pete Donahoe. Back, from left: John Schoolfield, Ken Williams, Danny Sharon, and Howard Monroe.

The Council of Texas Statisticians (COTS) sponsored an award at the ExxonMobil Texas Science and Engineering Fair (EMTSEF), held in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center on April 2. The award was for the best use of statistics in a science project. A team of judges from the San Antonio Chapter of the American Statistical Association helped select three senior high–division projects that showed excellence in the use and knowledge of statistical methods.

First place and $125 were awarded to Amy Robinson, from Keystone High School in San Antonio, for her project, “Astronomical Image Processing: Eliminating Random Atmospheric Noise and Enhancing Low-Resolution Images (Year III).” Second place and $100 were awarded to Bhas Karan Nair, from Plano High School in Plano, for his project, “Genome Signature and the Origin of Life.” Third place and $75 were awarded to Sai Gourisnakar, from Robert L. Paschal High School in Fort Worth, for his project, “Novel Mathematical Characterizations of the One-Dimensional, Self-Gravitating System.”