The results for the 2020 MCM/ICM were released recently, and the Shenzhen MSU-BIT University team won four titles including one “Meritorious Winner,” two “Honorable Mentions” and one “Successful Participant” at the international contest. This was the first time for the university to participate in this event.

The Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) is a multi-day mathematical modeling competition held annually in the United States by COMAP (the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Application) since 1985. It runs concurrently with the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM) that started in 2000. Every year, thousands of teams around the world compete in the MCM/ICM competitions.

This year the MCM/ICM attracted 20,948 teams including teams from the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, Columbia University, Cornell University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Due to the pandemic, the contest was divided into two parts, with one held from February 13 to 17 and the other from March 5 to 9. Each part lasted for four days and four nights, during which students were required to choose one out of six subjects, establish their mathematical model for problem solving, and write a thesis. Students who participated in this contest needed to be good at not only mathematical modeling but also writing in English on scientific topics.

Shenzhen MSU-BIT University has given priority to this contest and constructed a curriculum serving this purpose. During the COVID-19 outbreak, students couldn’t go back to school for training. To help them better prepare for the contest, faculty including Zhang Ye, Liu Wei and Xu Chen trained the students in online sessions.

The mathematical modeling contest is just one of many contests the school encourages its students to participate in. The school is keen on cultivating cross-disciplinary young talents in mathematics and computer science.

(Chen Xiaochun)