The HappyCal Awards for 1999-2000

[courtesy of Riley Soles]

The Ramanujan Award for natural mathematical ability. This award goes to the student who, through almost effortless acts of sheer mathematical insight, has shown us all and continued to remind just how inadequate our own abilities are.

Winner: Ryu
Runner Up: Mat

The Euclid Award for the secret genius among us. This award goes to the precocious individual who, upon finishing a test, was most likely to complain how poorly he did, but actually did better than any of us.

Winner: Dan

The Bernoulli Award for the struggling genius among us. This award goes to the precocious student who, upon finishing a test, was most likely to complain how poorly he did, and actually did more poorly than any of us.

Winner: Tarit
Runner Up: James

The Fermat Award for creativity. This award goes to the student who found the most interesting and creative (and most fun) ways to both expand his calculus skills and tackle calculus problems.

Winner: Max

The Faraday Prize for the love of Calculus. This award goes to the student who, upon seeing his first integral, immediately fell in love with tackling the abstruse concepts of the Calculus, and even did some reading outside the class to brush up on his calculus skills. He is also the most likely to pick the Calculus as his major.

Winner: Bill
Runner Up: Mat

The Archimedes Award for good looks. The award goes to the student who came to class every day extremely disheveled but always prepared. Actually, no, this student got manhandled by every "random" equipment check given. The award goes to the student who survived on "learning attitude" only.

Winner: Riley
Runner Up: Will

The Einstein Award for violent mathematics. This award goes to the student who is most likely to take his calculus skills to war, probably to create some weapon of mass destruction. This student will only stop at complete world domination, and is probably plotting all of our demises this very moment.

Winner: Will
Runner Up: Eerik

The Descartes Award for pent-up emotions. This award goes to the student who seems calm and intellectual, but when alone does strange things that none of us want to know about.

Winner: C.B.
Runner Up: Eerik

The Stephen Hawking Award for most energetic and vivacious math student. This award goes to the student who was so excited about math that he could never keep still or be quiet. This individual was most likely to be yelled at, most likely to take 13 bath room breaks in one short period, most likely to have been the reason we stopped podifying soon after its implementation, and yes, the most likely to fumble the Koosh.

Winner: Colin

The Euclid Award for inquisitiveness. This award goes to the student who seemed most interested in the material, for reasons that will be forever unknown. He is also most likely to become the Unabomber.

Winner: James
Runner Up: Mat

The Leontief Award for mathematical courage. This award goes to the student who was willing to stand up for himself in the face of difficulty, and rescued me from a "random" equipment check.

Winner: Fareed

The Bohr Award for mathematical interest. The award goes to the student who would rather not be fooling around with the subtleties of calculus, but would rather plow through to more interesting applications.

Winner: Braxton

The Tesla Award for eccentricity. Goes to the student who is secretly a very strange and probably disturbed individual. At night, he probably chants to pagan gods no longer worshipped or even known. He does things like cover himself in peanut butter and mulch. He collects small animals and tortures them until the end of their miserable little lives.

Winner: Caesar
Runner Up: everyone in this room

The Euler Award for mathematically induced mental disorders. This award goes to the student whose brain was most damaged due to the overwhelming stresses of the Calculus, including the onset of such neuroses as schizophrenia, insomnia, and diarrhea. This student has a dangerous amount of frustration pent up that will soon erupt into some horrible incident involving blenders, monkeys, and lots of blood.

Winner: Eerik
Runner Up: Riley

The Leibniz Award for no recognition. This award goes to the student who is bitter for not getting recognition or other awards.

Winner: Mat

The Newton Award for mad crazy math skills. This award goes to the individual who, through years of effort, years of trudging though swamps and island hopping through archipelagos of uncertainty, years of dodging mathematical death spirals, and years of doing strange things for the government which may forever remain a mystery, has somehow mastered calculus, and thus been an inspiration all year.

Winner: Mr. Hansen
Runner Up: Tarit