Mathematical Modeling

by rrusczyk, Jun 17, 2006, 3:21 PM

I've heard snippets (from Lori Thomas at Mathcamp, Dan Cory way back when I was a student at MOP, Dan Teague at NCSSM, and Doug Faires on the AMC Board) about how cool mathematical mdoeling contests are. The only big(gish) national one is the one run by CoMAP, which as far as I can tell is not marketed to high schools much at all. However, I hear that the contest is very nice. It certainly sounds pretty cool, and very modern. I'm wondering if anyone has participated in it and what your experience is. I met the person who runs it this weekend, and I think AoPS may be uniquely positioned to help introduce mathematical modeling to a broader audience. Therefore, I'd like to hear more from students who have been involved.

In this vein, there was a contest in NYC sponsored by Moody's and SIAM that gave quite a bit of money out for mathematical modeling. Again, I've only heard whispers about the contest (as I understand, the problem had something to do with fixing social security), but if any of you participated, please fill me in!

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Umm.. what is mathematical modeling? Do they give you a situation and have you write a formula, or are you just supposed to make pretty pictures with graphs, or what?

by probability1.01, Jun 17, 2006, 3:22 PM

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Probability1.01: Here are the last year's problems from CoMAP, which I found a few months ago while wading around the net. Problems
However, I haven't participated in this so I can't say much about it.

by Hokkage, Jun 17, 2006, 3:22 PM

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So it's like physics, only with lots of math?

by SamE, Jun 17, 2006, 3:22 PM

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SamE wrote:

So it's like physics, only with lots of math?

It's broader than that. I Googled problems from some modeling contests (including at the undergraduate level) with problems ranging through all the sciences, including economics. Engineering is involved in undergraduate contests (and for all I know it might be in high school contests to some degree as well).

I agree with Richard that it sounds like fun -- particularly as a team-oriented event. Now that I think about it, it's one of the most realistic educational programs: that's what adults with problem solving educations do -- work with other people to develope realistic solutions to programs (and then really see them implemented).

by MCrawford, Jun 17, 2006, 3:22 PM