On Saturday, April 28, 2018, the UCA Department of Mathematics hosted the annual State Mathematics Contest. It 
was sponsored by the Arkansas Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ACTM). There were 235 students from high schools across Arkansas competed in one of six exam categories -Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Trig/Pre-Calculus, Calculus and Statistics. Dr. Charles Watson, Associate Professor of Mathematics, served as the director of the state contest and was assisted by mathematics faculty members,Dr. Garth Johnson, Dr. Carolyn Pinchback, and Ms. Loi Booher, and graduate student Kayla Waters. Exams were proctored by the UCA math graduate teaching assistants.
All students participated in the state contest were top ten finishers in one of the 11 regional contests that were held in colleges and universities across the state on March 5, 2018. All students who placed in top three at the state level were awarded trophies. Algebra I and Geometry winners received TI-84 calculators and the other contest winners received scholarship awards to a future college of their choice. Awards were presented by Dr. Watson and Ms. Kim Hughes, president of ACTM.