Author: Donnie Sewell

When ASMSA computer science instructor Carl Frank received his invitation to be inducted into the Arkansas Academy of Computing, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to accept.

One day, Teresa Hall was standing in line at a grocery store waiting to check out. In front of her was a couple speaking to each other.
“They said ‘It smells like birthday cake,’ ” Hall said.

Sergei Lupashin (’01) has what some may consider an unusual use for a retractable dog leash.

Prominently displayed on one of the walls of the Administration Building’s lobby is an exhibit we call Dolphin Echoes. It features photos and brief bios of a few of our more than 2,000 alumni in Arkansas and beyond who are carrying ASMSA forward into the broader world.

Corey Alderdice, director of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, was named to the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 Class of 2014.

This is the 21st year the weekly business journal has honored business and political leaders under 40 years old. Honorees are nominated by readers and chosen by the editors of Arkansas Business. The publication released the list of this year’s honorees Monday.

Alderdice, 32, was appointed as ASMSA’s director in May 2012. Before coming to ASMSA, Alderdice was a core figure in the planning and the realization of the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science, a school similar to ASMSA located on the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green, Ky. Between 2007 and 2012, he served as the assistant director for admissions and public relations of the Gatton Academy.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts celebrated two milestones during commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2014 on May 24 — the 20th graduating class and the 2,000th graduate since the school opened in 1993.

The Arkansas General Assembly created ASMSA in 1991. The first class of students arrived on campus as juniors in August 1993 and graduated in May 1995. Including the 96 graduates of the Class of 2014, 2,031 students have graduated from ASMSA. This year’s graduating class earned more than $16.5 million in scholarship offers.

Jessica Nguyen of Sherwood was recognized as the 2,000th graduate during the ceremonies. Nguyen is the daughter of Hong Thi and Ban Van Nguyen and attended North Little Rock High School East before choosing to come to ASMSA.

Nguyen said she was very excited when she was told she would be recognized as No. 2,000.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ 20th commencement ceremonies this weekend will include a special milestone — recognition of the school’s 2,000th graduate since it opened in 1993.

This year marks the 20-year anniversary of the first class of students to graduate from the school in 1995. Commencement ceremonies will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in Horner Hall at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

ASMSA opened in 1993 as the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences after being created by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1991. The school joined the University of Arkansas System in 2004 and became the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.

The Class of 2014 includes 96 students who earned more than $14 million in scholarship offers and letters of acceptance from 131 institutions of higher education.

Dr. Yang Xu, a member of the Class of 1999, will serve as commencement speaker. Xu is an internist who practices in Hot Springs Village.

Is that movie scene scientifically possible? How can you make a rocket from a two-liter soda bottle? Can you cook food using solar energy? What scientific clues are crucial at a crime scene?

Those are just some of the questions that participants will find answers to during the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts SEI+ Summer day camps in June.

ASMSA is offering the new day camps for rising eighth-, ninth- and 10th-graders. SEI+ Summer is an extension of the school’s popular monthly Science and Engineering Institutes.  The camps will feature two weeklong sessions on June 16-20 and June 23-27.  Two sessions will be held each morning from 9 a.m. to noon and two each afternoon 1 to 4 p.m. Participants may register for a maximum of four sessions over the two-week period.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won first place overall in the school category and three ASMSA students placed in the top four in the individual overall competition at the 2014 Southwestern Energy Arkansas Science and Engineering Fair.

The fair was held April 5-6 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

ASMSA won first place overall for the second consecutive year. Also placing in the top five were Little Rock Central High School, second; Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville, third; Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, fourth; and Alma High School, fifth.

One team from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won first place and two other ASMSA teams placed in the top 10 at the annual University of Arkansas High School Programming Contest.

Calling themselves the League of Dapper Gentlepersons, seniors Simon Boerwinkle and Tara Moses and junior Joseph Zhang won first place in the contest held by the University of Arkansas’ Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering on the Fayetteville campus on March 15. Acxiom and the university’s student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery sponsored the contest.