Apr 21, 2009 - Claremont, Calif. -
The HMC team was further distinguished with the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Award, which is granted for exceptional writing. The report from the outstanding team will be published in the Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics and Its Applications sometime next year.
Moreover, three HMC teams earned the designation Meritorious (top 19 percent), and one earned Honorable Mention (top 37 percent).
“This is an incredible showing for HMC, and a testament to the strength of our core curriculum and academic program,” said Rachel Levy, assistant professor of mathematics.
Ten HMC teams (30 sophomores, juniors and seniors in all) participated in this year’s competition, which was held Feb. 5 to 9. The teams included mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science and mathematics/computer science majors.
Sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications, the MCM challenges student teams to clarify, analyze and propose solutions to open-ended problems.
The ICM, an international contest for high school students and college undergraduates, is an extension of the MCM. It is designed to develop and advance interdisciplinary problem-solving skills as well as competence in written communication.
During the grueling contest, each team of three students 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) Designing a traffic circle
(B) Modeling energy cost of cell phone versus landline phone usage
(C) Modeling management of a coral reef
Here are the winning HMC teams:
Problem A – Outstanding Winner and MAA Prize
Aaron Abromowitz '09 (mathematics)
Andrea Levy '11 (mathematics)
Russell Melick '11 (computer science)
Problem A – Meritorious
Richard Bowen '10 (mathematics)
Andrew Hunter '09 (computer science/mathematics)
Hendrik Orem '09 (mathematics)
Problem A – Meritorious
David Zitter '10 (mathematics)
Rick O’Toole '10 (mathematics)
Jason Wyman '10 (mathematics)
Problem C – Meritorious
Ryan Muller '11 (computer science/mathematics)
Neal Pisenti '11 (physics)
Chandler May '11 (mathematics)
Problem C – Honorable Mention
Patrick Foley '09 (mathematics)
Steven Ehrlich '09 (computer science/mathematics)
Tyler Wolf '09 (computer science)
For complete results, click here.
Media contact: Don Davidson
don_davidson@hmc.edu
Office: (909) 607-7924 / Cell: (909) 936-8201
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