The Super Bowl isn’t the only exciting competition taking place in February! The Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)® is an international contest for college undergraduates that challenges teams of students to analyze, model, solve, and present solution reports to an open-ended application problem. Clarkson has been competing in this competition for roughly 20 years, with past teams earning Honorable Mention, Meritorious Win, and even chosen as one of the top five teams globally.
This year, three teams of Clarkson students competed with over thirty thousand teams around the world, yes, you read that right—30,000 teams! They trained for roughly ten weeks, led by “Coach” Dr. Katie Kavanagh and Dr. Guangming Yao. They immersed themselves in the modeling process to gain experience in solving messy, open-ended real world problems. This included honing skills like making and justifying assumptions in order to develop mathematical relationships between critical design parameters, learning new software and problem-solving tools, and sharpening technical communication skills.
Two teams, one made up of Minh-Ngoc Huynh (Sophomore, Data Science), Jeithy Jason Ofosu-Mensah (Junior, Data Science), and Amity Ramona Mentis-Cort (Junior, Software Engineering), the other made up of Kelsey Sheehe (Senior, Applied Mathematics and Statistics) and Angelina Spielman (Senior, Mathematical Economics),chose the same Data Problem. They focused on the psychological concept of momentum in tennis – predicting the “swings” in momentum during tennis matches, given data from the 2023 Wimbledon tournament.
It was a grueling time where I bossed my friends around and rushed them like we were at a new firm. It was fun, though, and I thought it helped us adapt to realistic workplace deadlines. It also pulled out the most work that I’ve ever done and taught me a valuable lesson that I had been struggling with: if I put my mind to it, with friends, I can complete a whole 25-page paper on difficult concepts. (Minh-Ngoc Huynh)
I’m a big believer in the idea that you can figure out anything if you’re willing to learn, experiment, and put your mind to it. I was asked by Ngoc to participate in the competition, so I thought it would be a fun experience to participate in and really challenge my mind! I’ve competed in math competitions before just to see how I’d perform, so I’m doing the same again now, but this time I learned a lot in the process, especially about predictive models. Though without my teammates, I probably wouldn’t have known where to start. (Amity Ramona Mentis-Cort)
After hearing about this from my MA200 Professor Ben Galluzzo during class, I was intrigued on getting to apply the fundamental skills learned within an in class-setting, to a world-wide competition, which at first was very intimidating. But all in all, the competition was fun, learning from new teammates and friends, getting to have more of a taste of applied mathematical approaches in society….which is pretty cool. (Jeithy Jason Ofosu-Mensah )
As a senior applied mathematics and statistics major here at Clarkson I feel as though I have been given lots of tools to tackle a problem like this, but it was a great opportunity to use and practice them. Competing in this competition was incredibly valuable to me, I enjoyed trying to creatively come up with a solution and professionally communicate my findings and results. I would recommend any student interested in math to compete! (Kelsey Sheehe)
In high school, I was the only female member of my school’s math team. When Kelsey shared with me the opportunity for a math competition, I pictured an experience similar to the one I had in high school: a bunch of students crammed in empty classrooms given ten minutes to solve three given problems. COMAP was not that. Spanning over five long days, COMAP challenged us to apply things we learned throughout the past four years to a real-world problem. I want to give a huge shout out to my amazing partner, Kelsey, for all the hard work she put in. I got sick at the worst possible time, and she really stepped up and was key in our overall success in completing the competition. (Angelina Spielman)
The other team, made up of Eric Martin (Sophomore, Civil Engineering and Mathematics), Romeo Caldwell (Sophomore, Environmental Engineering), and Bryant Connolly (Senior, Applied Mathematics) worked to create a model that will give insights across different locations on how the ability of sea lamprey to alter their male-female ratio impacts populations and affects local and global ecosystems. This takes into account native and non-native habitats, how climate change will affect sea lamprey populations and breeding behavior, and their effect on the ecosystems.
After taking the Introduction to Math Modeling course, math modeling quickly became one of my favorite applications of math. It combines creativity, research, and pure math into a fun activity that aims to predict future behavior. I had a bunch of fun throughout the contest and never in my life thought I would know this much about sea lamprey. It was a fantastic opportunity to grow academically, I recommended it wholeheartedly. (Eric Martin)
Before this competition, I admittedly had little experience with math modeling, but through the training leading up to the competition, I was able to understand the basics so I was well prepared to actually compete. Something that initially intrigued me about math modeling was the creative aspect of it. In many parts of math, there is one right answer, but in math modeling there can be many valid solutions. During the competition I did a lot of writing and researching, which helped me contribute in a way that I was skilled in. While there were difficulties, I am very glad that I participated in it, even as someone who does not have a strongly-related major. (Romeo Caldwell)
I had a lot of experience within the world of mathematics from taking math modeling and advanced math classes, and this competition was an opportunity for me to showcase the skills and knowledge that I have learned previously. Overall the competition was an amazing experience as I was able to use some of the models that I learned previously from taking applied mathematical modeling and differential equations. I also learned so much about sea lamprey, and throughout the competition, I was able to become more of an expert on these species. I am very glad to be a part of this competition, and I would recommend this to anyone who is in STEM or interested in mathematics. (Bryant Connolly)
Are you looking for an opportunity to solve real-world problems with applied mathematics and computational methodologies? Consider forming a team and participating in one of the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP)’s international modeling contests. Visit the COMAP website for free modeling resources and study materials. Follow @COMAPMath on Twitter for up-to-date contest information. Form a team and get ready for next year’s contests in February!