Apr 06, 2006 - Claremont, Calif. -

Results of the 2006 International Mathematical Contest in Modeling have just been announced, and HMC had another excellent performance, with one HMC team earning top honors of Outstanding and three teams earning Meritorious.

Twenty-one HMC students participated in this year's competition, which was held Feb. 2-6. Sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP), the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), challenges teams of students to clarify, analyze, and propose solutions to open-ended problems.

The Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM), an international contest for high school students and college undergraduates, is an extension of the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). It is designed to develop and advance interdisciplinary problem-solving skills as well as competence in written communication. ICM is a part of MCM.

During the contest each team of three has 96 consecutive hours to develop a mathematical model and write a formal paper describing their work. The team's papers are judged not only on their scientific and mathematical accuracy, but also on their clarity of exposition, insight and creativity. Teams choose one of three challenging real-world problems. This year's problems concerned:

(A) Optimal irrigation scheduling for a given field

(B) Wheelchair management at airports

(C) Modeling the global HIV pandemic

This year the MCM had 748 entries with 12 earning top honors, and the ICM had 224 entries, with 4 earning top honors (Outstanding) including the HMC team of:

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Cris Cecka (Physics '06)

Mike Martin (Physics '06)

Tristan Sharp (Physics '06)

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Their work will be published in the "Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics and its Applications." The team will also present their model during HMC's Presentation Days May 1-3. The other Outstanding ICM teams were Duke University and the United States Military Academy.

For the MCM we had three HMC teams earn Meritorious, all of which made it into the "top 30" final round of judging. The teams were:

Problem A:

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Elisa Celis (Computer Science-Mathematics '06)

Julijana Gjorgjieva (Mathematics '06)

Kenny Maples (Engineering, Mathematics '06)

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Michael Coupland (Computer Science '06)

John McCullough (Computer Science '06)

Nick Rauh (Mathematics '06)

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Problem B:

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Michael Hansen (Mathematics '07)

Herbie Huff (Mathematics '07)

Stephanie Moyerman (Physics '06)

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An Honorable Mention award went to two teams:

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Benj Azose (Mathematics '07)

Margeurite Leeds (Mathematics-Biology '06)

Simon Stump (Mathematics-Biology '06)

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Tiffany Head (Mathematics '06)

Jacob Pugh (Physics '06)

Tyler Seacrest (Mathematics '06)

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This marks the ninth year in a row an HMC team has earned Outstanding in the competition. Please join us in congratulating these skillful Mudders who dedicated their time, enthusiasm and talents to compete in this year's modeling competition.