64th Annual STS (2004-2005)
Finalists
Sisi Monica Chen

GEORGIA
Sisi Monica Chen, 17, of Duluth studied the growth rate of the function g(n), the least number of 1's needed to express n using only addition, subtraction and multiplication for her Intel Science Talent Search project in mathematics. For positive n she gives upper and lower bounds for this function in terms of n, and shows that g(3k) = 3k. A related function f(n) counts the least number of 1's if one does not allow subtraction, just addition and multiplication; the behavior of f is relevant for computation, but difficult to understand. Sisi shows that f(n) > g(n) for infinitely many choices of n, and she shows that f(n) = g(n) infinitely often. Sisi attends Northview High School where she is co-captain of the Science Olympiad team and, for the past two years, has been co-president of the Beta Club, which raised over $3,000 toward a cure for cystic fibrosis. She has earned awards for her performances in both viola and piano, and was nominated as the 2004 "Poet of the Year" by the International Society of Poets. Born in China, she is the daughter of Dr. Guantao Chen and Daoling Bi. Sisi plans to study mathematics and genetics at Harvard.