Ethan Zhou, a student at McLean High School, has placed seventh in the national 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search.
Zhou received a $70,000 award for studying the theory behind a machine-learning model in which the learning program receives training data gradually. His math research could be especially useful for algorithms that predict and learn from events that are revealed over time, like the weather, Fairfax school officials said.
Zhou is a three-time USA Math Olympiad qualifier and heads the math league at McLean High School, where he helped double the size of the club. He is also a prize-winning pianist, a skill he has honed for more than a decade.
The son of Guangming Zhou and Jia Hong, Zhou has also tutored at the Hope Chinese School for five years.
