Mathematical Modeling Competitions

Congratulations to This Year's Modeling Teams!

The results are in!  This year, over 2600 teams from around the world took part in the COMAP Mathematical and Interdisciplinary Contests in Modeling.  Eight teams from UW-La Crosse competed in this year's contest (including one from Onalaska High School). 

The team of Jacky Chan, John Nehls, and Joey Powers earned a ‘finalist’ ranking for their submission, “No Sting in Your Swing,” in which they developed a theoretical model of impact between various types of bats (including aluminum, ash, and ‘corked’) and a baseball.  This placed them among the top 9 papers in the world and top 5 in the nation (out of 920 who chose the same problem). 

Two more teams earned meritorious designations, two earned honorable mentions, and three earned successful participant ratings (see below). 

2010 Fast Facts

  • Teams from the United States accounted for 381 of the 2610 total entries in the contest.
  • Only three US schools fielded more teams than UW-La Crosse.
  • Only four US schools placed more teams in the 'award' categories than UW-La Crosse.

UW-La Crosse Participation

Below is a summary of UWL participation since 2007.

Year Standing Team Members Problem
2010 Finalist Jacky Chan John Nehls Joey Powers The Sweet Spot
2010 Meritorious Cody Hunt Ali Khalili Hoang Vo The Sweet Spot
2010 Meritorious Hillary Brummond Leslie Kent Katie Ott Criminology
2010 Honorable Mention Maria Jansen Jimmy McDermott Amanda Welter The Great Pacific
Ocean Garbage Patch
2010 Honorable Mention Paul Benzschawel Brandon Groth Matt Zuberbuehler Criminology
2010 Successful Participant Megan Herrick Jessica Klister Naomi Sperry Criminology
2010 Successful Participant Sam Chen Ryan Haunfelder Douglas MacFarland Criminology
2010 Successful Participant Zach Levonian Chris Miller Austin Zeng The Sweet Spot
           
2009 Meritorious Ali Khalili Joe Lanska Vince Zander Energy and the Cell Phone
2009 Meritorious Eric Bartels Marsha Swatosh Amanda Welter Energy and the Cell Phone
2009 Successful Participant Matt Cocchiola Ray Leach Val Sackmann Energy and the Cell Phone
2009 Successful Participant Yanan Chen Joey Goldman Hoang Vo Designing a Traffic Circle
2009 Successful Participant Sam Chen Chintan Modi Trevor Oswald Designing a Traffic Circle
           
2008 Meritorious Gustav Borstad Jarod Hart Kirk Wienkes Creating Sudoku Puzzles
           
2007 Successful Participant Jarod Hart Kirk Wienkes Lee Wienkes Gerrymandering

The MCM and ICM

Each spring, thousands of college students worldwide take part in the annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM) sponsored by COMAP (the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications). These competitions, held in mid February, require students to provide solutions to open ended real-world problems using mathematics.  Teams have 96 hours (4 days) to develop a model, test their model, analyze their results, and prepare a complete written report explaining their findings.

At the end of the 96 hours, teams send their papers to the judging committee, who rates papers based on readability, appropriate use of methods, and overall effectiveness of the paper using the following scheme:

  • Successful Participant - The report responded to the requirements of the contest problem and communicated those results to the judges.
  • Honorable Mention - (Top 40-50%) The team's report contained elements that were judged to contain good progress in modeling and problem solving.
  • Meritorious - (Top 15-20%) The team's report was judged to be excellent in many aspects of modeling and problem solving. The report showed elements of modeling, problem solving, and communication that are exemplary for the scope of the contest.
  • Finalist - (Next 0.5-1.0%)The designation Finalist recognizes those papers that reached the final round of judging. After 7 rounds of judging, those papers reaching the final round of judging constitute at most two percent of all papers.
  • Outstanding Winner - (top 0.5-1.0%) The team was a Finalist whose report was judged to be at the highest level in terms of modeling, solving the contest problem, and communicating the solution. These reports are generally published and used as examples of outstanding student work.

If you're a student interested in participating in the MCM/ICM, or if you're an advisor hoping to recruit a team, check out some of the resources I've found helpful.

Regional Mathematical Modeling Challenges

Each October, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse department of mathematics hosts an annual math contest called the Wisconsin Mathematical Modeling Challenge (WMMC).  This regional math contest gives undergraduate students the opportunity to apply their math skills to real world problems. The WMMC is currently one of three regional mathematical modeling contests.

In teams of three, students have 23 hours to develop and test a model and write a one-page summary of their findings; teams have one additional (24th) hour to finalize a 10 minute presentation explaining their results. Soon after preparing their presentations, teams present their findings to other student WMMC participants. The event concludes with an award ceremony that highlights the work of winning teams as determined by students and advisors.

For more information about the WMMC (or other regional MMCs), visit our WMMC website.

Getting Involved

UW-La Crosse has fielded teams for the MCM in since 2007.  In 2008, the La Crosse team earned a meritorious rating! (Their paper was one of the top 30 American papers, and one of the top 100 papers worldwide for their problem!)  In 2009, five teams from UWL participated, with two earning meritorious ratings. In 2010, eight teams participated, with one finalist, two meritorious, and two honorable mentions. If you are interested in joining a modeling team, contact Dr. Wendt or Dr. Bennie to learn more.