2008 MCM at UAF
The MCM is the Mathematical Contest in Modeling,
an applied simulation and mathematics contest-by-mail. Across the
world, thousands of teams
of three undergraduates spend four long days writing code and preparing
a
50+ page writeup for their choice of two problems. The writeups
are then mailed to COMAP and read, and the winning "Outstanding"
writeups are published in
the COMAP journal. UAF has had
quite a few Outstanding papers in the past, and both of UAF's 2006 teams were rated "Meritorious", the second-highest possible ranking.
2008 "Outstanding" UAF MCM Team
CS major Seth Chadwick, math major Rachel Krieg, and Physics/CS/Math triple-major Christopher Granade's 62-page team writeup on generating Sudoku problems
was designated "Outstanding" by COMAP, the highest possible
ranking, achieved by only 9
of the 1,162 teams competing!
Their
paper will be published in the fall 2008 COMAP
journal. Their paper was also selected as the INFORMS
prize winner by the Institute for Operations Research and the
Management Sciences. Our team's designation as
"Outstanding" in an international competition of this caliber is a
significant achievement, both for the students and for UAF!
- The
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner published a
short article congratulating
the team in the Sunday, April 20 edition.
- They gave a talk
presenting their work on Monday, April 28 at 5pm in Reichardt 203.
- They were featured in the April 29th edition of the UAF student
paper, the Sun Star.
- An article about them was the UAF
Spotlight on March 5, 2008.
Another UAF MCM team consisted of CS majors James Halliday, Ruth Rutter,
and Joel St. John. Their 36-page team writeup on
generating Sudoku problems rated an "Honorable Mention" (top 41%).
Posted by Dr. Lawlor,
MCM 2008 Faculty Advisor.