Learning calculus for most is hard enough, but a group of Flower Mound High School students took it one step further by competing in the UTA Calculus Bowl – and they won.
Flower Mound’s team beat out 18 other schools from across Texas at the 24th UTA Calculus Bowl, securing its seventh competition win and extending its record for most championships.
Damien Hicks, Garrett Smith, Bryan Fu, Advik Kishore and Brian Han made up Flower Mound’s team, which was sponsored by Amanda Steffan and Russell Yeatts.
The Calculus Bowl is hosted by the University of Texas at Arlington’s Department of Mathematics and features high school students teaming up to face off against each other in a fast-paced, quiz bowl-style competition.
According to UTA, four or five students from each school team up and score points by answering a series of challenging multiple-choice calculus questions correctly – and quickly.
Students are only supplied with a simple-function calculator to use during the game.
At the end of the game, Flower Mound had scored the most points, beating out a pair of teams that have had success in the competition:
- Grapevine High School finished in second after winning the competition in 2025 and finishing on the podium in 2024 and 2023.
- The School of Science and Engineering from Dallas finished in third. The program has won the event four times in the past.
“What impressed me most wasn’t just that the students could solve the harder problems, but how quickly and confidently they did so,” said Erika Gallo, a postdoctoral research associate and instructor in mathematics at UTA. “It’s encouraging to see so many students with both a passion and a strong aptitude for mathematics.”
Gallo helped run the event this year… 14 years after she competed in the event as a senior at Rowlett High School.
According to Gallo, the competition can benefit students because many of the questions used are similar to what students will see on the AP Calculus test. Others start to look more at the collegiate level.
Histo Kojourharov, a professor at UTA and chair of the university’s Department of Mathematics, said the Calculus Bowl is one of the highlights for the department each year.
He helped to create the event, which debuted in 2001 to prove that calculus isn’t boring.
“It has been another great year of hosting amazingly bright students for an afternoon of friendly competition and celebration of mathematics,” said Kojouharov. “We’re honored to be able to put on this event which lets students get excited about mathematics.”
For the full story on the 24th annual UTA Calculus Bowl, visit the UTA website.
