Mathematical Contest in Modeling

2-6 February 2006

Can you rise to the challenge?

The Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), a unique international contest for undergraduates, will hold its 22nd annual competition will take place from February 2 to February 6, 2006. In 2005, 828 teams from institutions in countries including the USA, Canada, China, Finland, South Korea and South Africa participated in the contest. The MCM is designed to stimulate and improve problem-solving and writing skills in mathematics. Students participate as team members rather than as individuals, creating an environment for sharing knowledge and skills.

The problems are not announced in advance. Could you, as part of a group, produce a plausible solution to an unseen problem, including write-up, in just 4 days? Would you like to try?

In 2005 McGill sponsored two teams, one supervised by Prof. A. Humphries and the other by Prof. N. Nigam.  The McGill entry consisting of Miika Klemetti, Colin McNally, and Christopher Payette, mentored by Nilima Nigam, tackled the problem on flood planning and was awarded the Ben Fusaro Award in the contest, and achieved a standing of Meritorious in the overall competition. The Ben Fusaro award is awarded to 2 papers (out of 828), one for each problem, which best exemplify the following characteristics:

· The paper presents a high-quality application of the complete modeling process.

· The team has demonstrated noteworthy originality and creativity in their modeling effort to solve the problem as given.

· The paper is well written, in a clear expository style, and is a pleasure to read.

The team mentored by Tony Humphries received an Honourable Mention on the tollbooth problem.

See the MCM Flyer (www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/MCMICM06.pdf large file) or the MCM homepage (www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm) at the COMAP website (www.comap.com) for more details on the contest. The Tollbooth graphic from the 2006 Call for Entries refers to the Tollbooth Problem from the 2005 competition.

If you are interested, either individually, or as a group, contact Prof. Humphries (humphries@math.mcgill.ca) or Prof. Nigam (nigam@math.mcgill.ca) and we will organize one or more teams. Good luck!