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Maryland Mathematical Modeling Contest

 


Maryland Mathematical Modeling Contest
2014-2015


The 2014 M3C has begun: Contest Problem

Printed submissions are due 10AM, Monday 11/17 at MTH 2119.


Interested? Want to be kept in the loop for M3C 2014-2015? Contact Prof. Wojtek Czaja (wojtek at math dot umd dot edu)


What is M3C? Why do M3C? Schedule Modeling Tutorials Rules Helpful Links Contact Us

What is M3C?

The Maryland Mathematical Modeling Contest (M3C) is an intramural competition based on the international Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). M3C seeks to mimic the structure of the MCM, and M3C winners have the opportunity to compete in the MCM as well.

In teams of up to three, apply your mathematical and computational knowledge to solve problems taken from all areas of science, engineering, and industry.

Over the course of 4 days, your team will develop a model to solve a challenging open-ended problem, devised by faculty members of the University of Maryland's math department, akin to those found in the MCM. You will implement your model computationally to find a problem solution, and write a detailed paper justifying and explaining your model and your findings.

Unlike many competitions, during M3C you are not barred from using your calculator, or your computer, or a textbook. In fact, you are free (and strongly encouraged!) to use the full array of resources that your bookshelf, your computer, and the University of Maryland have to offer. Use any
publicly or academically available tools and data to develop and implement your model.

Past MCM challenges have included:

  • Developing efficient water usage strategies for nations facing water stress.
  • Optimal scheduling and routing for rafting tours.
  • Modeling and simulating traffic control into, around, and out of a traffic circle.
  • Creating geographic profiles to predict criminal activity.
  • And many more!

Why do M3C?

Not just for math majors! We’re not saying that extra math knowledge can’t help you out, but a fully-implemented simple model can go much further than something deep and complicated that’s poorly implemented or explained. Success in M3C comes from a thorough and insightful analysis of creative computational models built upon any or all of statistics, calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and discrete mathematics. And anything else you might want in the mix!

Compete internationally!  The University of Maryland math department will sponsor the top two teams in this year’s M3C to compete in the MCM in the spring. The MCM is an international competition which last year drew 6755 teams from 18 countries, including teams from many major American universities. MCM solutions are ranked based on their quality, and top submissions may receive prizes from sponsoring organizations and appear in publication.

It’s how you learn, now what you know! M3C and MCM problems are drawn from sources in all areas of applied mathematics: science, engineering, and industry to name a few. These competitions require the ability to learn new material in unfamiliar areas, quickly and effectively. In addition to effective research ability, a successful M3C team should have mathematics skill, programming savvy, and clear, articulate writing abilities. Meet other bright students whose skills complement your own to create a winning team!

Beef up your resume! Show employers and grad committees that your quantitative reasoning skills are a well-honed component of your problem solving skill set. Show them that you can work effectively on a team when the pressure is on. Show them the awesome paper your team produces as your M3C solution!

Learn more about modeling! The M3C graduate assistants will hold four training sessions for any who wish to attend. During these sessions, you will learn strategies for effective modeling, analyze sample models from practice problems, and get feedback after brainstorming modeling ideas of your own! And of course, free food will be provided.


Schedule

Wednesday, 9/24 Information session, 4:15-5:00, MTH 1308
Thursday, 10/9 Modeling tutorial session 1. 4:30-5:30 in MTH 1311
Wednesday, 10/15 Modeling tutorial session 2. 4:30-5:30 in MTH 1311
Thursday, 10/23 Modeling tutorial session 3. 4:30-5:30 in MTH 1311
Wednesday, 10/29 Modeling tutorial session 4. 4:30-5:30 in MTH 1311
Friday, 11/14 M3C begins at 5 PM
Monday, 11/17 M3C ends, solutions due at 10 AM
Wednesday, 12/3 M3C winners announced, award ceremony
2/5-2/9, 2015 M3C 1st and 2nd place winners take part in the MCM competition

Modeling tutorials

(If popup blockers are enabled, you may need to right click and save to download files)

Time Location Topic Files
Th 10/9, 4:30 PM
MTH 1311
Dynamical systems and ecological modeling

PDF

PDF + model code

W 10/15, 4:30 PM
MTH 1311
Parameter estimation for exponential models

PDF

PDF + model code

Th 10/23, 4:30 PM
MTH 1311
TBA -
W 10/29, 4:30 PM
MTH 1311
TBA -

Rules

Form a team: Each team taking place in the M3C competition submits a single solution. A successful solution requires clear writing, solid mathematical understanding, and a well-implemented computational model written in a programming language of your choice. Therefore, look for team members with complementary skillsets in these domains. Teams may have between 1-3 members, but full-size teams are strongly suggested as

You have 65 hours: The M3C problem is posted online Friday, 11/14 at 5 PM. Your solution is due Monday, 11/17 at 10 AM and that deadline is unwavering. We strongly suggest that your team plan to be ready to submit by 9:15 AM, to account for inevitable last-minute disasters.

Use anything: Your team may use any document or software (legally!) available to you, either physically or on the internet, in the course of crafting your solution. Take advantage of the many academic resources available to you. The University of Maryland’s University Libraries system makes it easy to search for books, journals, and online articles, and you have access to some very useful free software through the University of Maryland’s TERPware. Google scholar is helpful as well, especially for finding papers which cite a given paper. Be sure to use proper citations and include a list of all works cited, because

No plagiarism: According to the University of Maryland Code of Academic Integrity, plagiarism is “intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise”. More information can be found here (PDF), but hopefully the idea is already a familiar one. A solution which appears to contain plagiarised content will result in a conference with the submitters, with deliberate plagiarism leading to disqualification.

No outside consultation: The M3C graduate assistants will be able to answer questions about competition rules and problem clarifications, and contact emails will be provided at the time of the competition. However, discussion of the competition problem or any work related to its solution with anyone outside of your team is forbidden, and can result in disqualification.


Helpful links

Previous M3C problems

2013: MERS - Disease and Containment Modeling

Competition resources

Software & computation:

TERPware (free software through UMD, including MATLAB)

Wolfram Alpha (handy website for calculations)

Python (open source, easy-to-use programming language)

Julia ("a high-level, high-performance dynamic programming language for technical computing")

Octave (MATLAB alternative)

Scilab (MATLAB alternative)

NetLogo (agent-based modeling and simulation software)

AMPL (modeling language for optimization problems)

R (software for statistical computing and graphics creation)

Research & journal access:

UMD University Libraries

Google scholar

Citation guidelines

Plagiarism guidelines

Typesetting software:

LaTeX   (the gold standard for mathematical document writing)

TeXnicCenter (a good Windows LaTeX editor)

LyX (Mac/Linux/Cygwin LaTeX editor with a graphical interface)

MCM

Organized by:

Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP)

Sponsored by:

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science (INFORMS)

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)

Mathematical Association of America (MAA)

MCM guides:

(with thanks to Cornell's MCM site)

Official MCM instructions

Kelly Cline's guide to the MCM

University of Washington

A former UColorado Boulder team's guide


Contact Us

M3C Faculty Adviser

        Wojtek Czaja  (wojtek at math dot umd dot edu)

Graduate (and Postdoctoral) Assistants

Dana Botesteanu (dboteste at math dot umd dot edu)
Chae Clark (cclark18 at math dot umd dot edu)
David Darmon (ddarmon at math dot umd dot edu)
Stefan Doboszczak (doboss27 at math dot umd dot edu)
Virginia Forstall (vhfors at math dot umd dot edu)
Matthew Guay (mguay at math dot umd dot edu)

Special thanks to the UMD Math department for providing M3C funding!