The results of 2012 National College Mathematical Contest in Modeling, Shanghai Division, were announced recently. The JI team consisting of Zhou Xintao, a junior, Luo Jiaxi, and Zhu Ruihao, both sophomores, won the first prize. The contest was cosponsored by MOE’s Higher Education Office and Chinese Society of Industry and Applied Mathematics, and title sponsored by the Higher Education Press. The contest was held on September 7-9, with 21,219 teams of 63,600 contestants from colleges in China, Singapore, and USA.
Zhou Xintao, Luo Jiaxi, and Zhu Ruihao
The competition emphasizes creativity in solving the problem, team work, and rationality of the results. Each team of two to three undergraduate students would select a problem, build a mathematical model, and write a paper about the solution. The judges would select the best papers to be defended. The JI team’s topic was “Wine Evaluation” and won the first prize in the Shanghai competition with their excellent paper and strong defense skills.
Zhou Xintao, Luo Jiaxi, and Zhu Ruihao are members of JI’s Innovation Club, Mathematical Modeling Group, with solid mathematical modeling foundation and contest experience. The same team had participated in the 2012 MCM, an annual mathematics competition for international college students, in the spring and won the second prize.
The final results of the national contest will be announced in November.Zhou Xintao remarked that the key of their winning is the selection of team members and team work. Their efficient division of labor and seamless cooperation made it possible for them to solve the problem in time. Zhu Ruihao emphasized the importance of accurately choosing the problem due to the sheer volume of the data to be analyzed. There is no going back once the problem was selected. In addition, the stamina and perseverance to go through the three-day ordeal is also critical to their success. Luo Jiaxi commented that they could apply what they had learned in class and also learned a lot during the contest.
Background information:
The annual National College Mathematical Contest in Modeling was established in 1992 and has become the largest college contest in basic discipline in China and the largest MCM in the world. Through the competition, the students have not only learned how to solve practical problems with mathematical models, but also gained experience in team work, paper writing, and oral communication.
