Apr 19, 2012 - Claremont, Calif. -

Harvey Mudd College seniors Dylan Marriner, Daniel Furlong and Luis Ryan earned the designation of Finalist—placing in the top 2 percent of more than 5,000 teams—in the 2012 International Mathematical Contest in Modeling and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (MCM/ICM).

Their team was tasked with finding the best method of scheduling whitewater rafting trips to maximize the number of trips in a season without shortchanging the raft riders' wilderness experience. They created an algorithm that allowed for a 10 percent increase in raft trips per season, with 24 percent fewer campsite conflicts than the next best algorithm considered by the team.

HMC sent seven teams to the competition and, in addition to the Finalist honor, two teams earned the designation Meritorious (top 11 percent), two earned Honorable Mention (top 39 percent), and two were designated Successful Participants.  

“This is an incredible showing for HMC and a testament to the strength of our core curriculum and academic program,” said Susan Martonosi, assistant professor of mathematics and MCM/ICM advisor.

The MCM/ICM is analogous to an applied Putnam exam, but in the form of a grueling 96-hour competition. Teams of up to three students are given 96 hours to solve their problem and submit their solution in the form of a research paper. The teams' papers are judged not only on their scientific and mathematical accuracy, but also on their clarity, insight and creativity.

This year’s problems concerned:


HMC teams were:

Problem B – Finalist

Daniel Furlong ’12

Dylan Marriner ’12

Louis Ryan ’12

Problem B - Meritorious

Martin Loncaric ’15

Xinlei Xu ’15

Paul Hobbs ’12

Problem C - Meritorious

Ryan Brewster ’12

Jack Newhouse ’12

Richard Porczak ’12



Problem C - Honorable Mention

Sean Campbell ’14

Shreyas Kumar ’14

Andrew Yandow ’14



Problem C - Honorable Mention

Sorathan Chaturapruek ’14

Joel Ornstein ’14

Problem A - Successful Participant

Eric Autry ’13

Natasha Parikh ’14

Christian Mason ’14


Problem A - Successful Participant

Katarina Hoeger ’13

John Wentworth ’13

Ben Gross ’13