Recently, results of 2013 Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM) were released. The team form Shandong University consisting Song Yankan, Xu Ke and Yin Fan was designated asOutstanding Winnerin the MCM. The team also won theOutstanding Inform Award, the highest honor designated by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Meanwhile, 6 teams from SDU receivedMeritorious Winner(2 from SDU, Weihai), 40 teams receivedHonorable Mention(19 from SDU, Weihai) and 48 teams wereSuccessful Participants(12 from SDU, Weihai).
This year’s contests ran from January 31st to February 4th, 2013. During that time, teams of up to three students researched, analyzed, modeled and communicated a solution to a given modeling problem. During winter vacation, undergraduate participants of SDU had been making elaborate preparation with their advisors before the contests in two school’s platform labs of innovative education, the lab of mathematical experiment and mathematical modeling, and the lab of the system analysis and software design. Finally, the team of Song, Xu and Yin from SDU’s School of Electrical Engineering, theOutstanding Winnerin the MCM, stood out from all the 6,593 teams from different countries owing to their interest in mathematics and the long time they have spent studying and competing together. They found a solution to Problem A—“The Ultimate Brownie Pan”, which required participants to develop a model to show the distribution of heat across the outer edge of a pan for pans of different shapes—rectangular to circular and other shapes in between. In the team’s response, they indentified the reason for overcooking the brownie mix at the edges while using a rectangular pan by analyzing the heat distribution along the edges of pans affected by different pan shapes. Furthermore, they proposed an optimization model for designing the optimal baking pan according to the requirements given by the problem.
In recent years, SDU has attached great importance to innovative education. Courses of innovative education at different levels, including compulsory courses, optional courses, common core curriculum, summer school, and contest training workshops, were provided to students. More than 9,200 students participated in the 53 activities held by different innovative education platforms, including expert lectures, contest training workshops and summer school, and more than 8,400 students took part in 41 optional courses on entrepreneurship and common core curriculum in 2012.
The MCM/ICM contests are top-level international contests in mathematical modeling. The contests are sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP). Since 1985, the contests have been held annually for 29 consecutive years. The MCM challenges teams of students to clarify, analyze, and propose solutions to open-ended problems. The ICM is an extension of the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). It designed to develop and advance interdisciplinary problem-solving skills as well as competence in written communication.
Source:www.view.sdu.edu.cn,www.comap.com