Four Hawai'i middle school students will compete this May in Colorado in the MathCounts National Competition.

Hawai'i's team is Mark Seu of Waiakea Intermediate, Naoki Shigeta of Washington Middle, Daron Lee of Highlands Intermediate and William Chen of Punahou.

Waiakea Intermediate teacher Arlene Cabalce-Yamakawa will be their coach.

This year's state competition was held at Kamehameha Schools on March 8. Waiakea Intermediate defeated defending champion Washington Middle for first place. This was the second year in a row that a public school won the competition.

Punahou School placed second, Washington Middle third and 'Iolani School fourth.

For more information, visit www.mathcounts.org.

SCIENCE FAIR NEXT WEEK AT BLAISDELL

The Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair will be held Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

The event is free and open to the public.

On display will be 348 student science research projects.

STUDENTS GOING TO D.C. OLYMPIAD

Hawai'i will be represented for the first time at the national Science Olympiad in Washington, D.C., on May 30 and 31.

The olympiad features intermediate and high school students performing various science experiments from forensics to space studies and beyond.

Teams from Highlands Intermediate and Farrington High will represent the state. They earned the right by winning the state event March 1 against 14 other public, private and charter schools.

For more information, visit the Hawai'i olympiad Web site at www.hsso.org.

MILILANI SENIOR WINS SCHOLARSHIP

Philip Mocz, a Mililani High senior, was among the top 10 finishers in the Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C.

He developed a statistical algorithm to find patterns in the distribution of nearby stars and won a $20,000 scholarship.

FOUR ISLE TEAMS IN ROBOTICS CONTEST

Four Hawai'i high school robotics teams will advance to the national robotics championship in Atlanta after winning high honors in Mainland regional competitions in recent weeks.

Waiakea High, Sacred Hearts, Waialua High and McKinley High will all compete April 16 to 18.

Waiakea placed second in the regional in San Jose, Calif., and received the Engineering Inspiration Award.

Sacred Hearts' first-year team finished in the top half of teams at the Milwaukee regional, which earned them the Rookie of the Year Award.

At the Richmond, Va., regional, Waialua was presented with the Entrepreneurship Award.

The McKinley team won first place at the Portland, Ore., regional. McKinley's victory was made possible by forming a three-team alliance with teams from Oregon and California, which led to a score that more than doubled their opponents.

Meanwhile, Hawai'i's first-ever regional robotics competition will be held today through Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center. The event is free and open to the public.

More than 450 students on 25 teams will compete.

For more information, go to www.robotics.hawaii.gov.