2016-ICM_Problem-D-Results

2016 Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling?Press Release—April 8, 2016

COMAP is pleased to announce the results of the 18th annual Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM). This year 5025 teams representing institutions from eight countries participated in the contest. Fourteen teams were designated as OUTSTANDING WINNERS representing the following schools:

?Brown University, USA

?Chongqing University, China

?Communication University of China, China

?Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, (INFORMS winner)

?NC School of Science and Mathematics, USA,

(Vilfredo Pareto Award)

?NC School of Science and Mathematics, USA,

(INFORMS winner)

?Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

?Renmin University of China, China

?Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA,

(Leonhard Euler Award)

?Shandong University, China

?Sun Yat-Sen University, China, (INFORMS winner)

?United States Military Academy, USA,

(Rachel Carson Award)

?University of Colorado Denver, USA

?Xiamen University, China

This year’s conte st ran from Thursday, January 28 to Monday, February 1, 2016. During that time, teams of three students researched, modeled, and communicated a solution to an open-ended interdisciplinary modeling problem. The 2016 ICM was primarily an online contest, where teams registered and obtained contest materials through COMAP’s ICM W ebsite.

ICM teams chose one of the following three problems: The D Problem involved measuring the evolution of so ciety’s information networks. By taking a historical perspective of flow of information relative to value of information, the modelers sought to understand the methodology, purpose, and

functi onality of society’s networks. The E Problem focused on the theme of environmental science. The teams needed to understand the drivers of water scarcity to create intervention strategies for a region to mitigate the water crisis. The new F Problem introduced policy modeling to the ICM. The problem for this first-time topic of policy modeling focused on the Middle East-Europe refugee migration issues. Consistent with other ICM problems, the policy problem challenged teams to utilize a diverse set of disciplinary skills including science, mathematics, politics, government operations, data science, and analysis in their modeling and problem solving. In all three cases, teams searched for pertinent data and grappled with how phenomena internal and external to the system under study needed to be considered. The student teams came up with creative and relevant solutions.

These problems also had the ever-present ICM requirements to use thorough data analysis, creative modeling, and scientific methodology, along with effective writing and visualization to communicate their teams' results in a 20-page report. A selection from the Outstanding solution papers will be featured in The UMAP Journal, along with commentaries from the problem authors and judges. This year’s judges remarked that due to the multi-disciplinary nature of the problems, teams were able to solve these problems using a variety of methods and tools. This allowed teams to showcase their strengths in many diverse areas including history, information science, networks, ecology, environmental sciences, health sciences, public policy, dynamical systems, and geo-spatial techniques.

2016 ICM Statistics

?5025 Teams participated

?864 Problem D submissions

?3209 Problem E submissions

?952 Problem F submissions

?91 US Teams (2%)

?4934 Foreign Teams (98%) from Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Singapore and

United Kingdom

?14 Outstanding Winners (1%)

?15 Finalist Winners (1%)

?935 Meritorious Winners (18%)

?2287 Honorable Mentions (45%)

?1649 Successful Participants (33%)

?125 Unsuccessful Participants (2%)

ICM is associated with COMAP’s Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), which was held during the same weekend. ICM is designed to develop and advance interdisciplinary problem-solving skills in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and the humanities, as well as competence in data science and written communication. Over the years the ICM problems have included topics in environmental science, biology, chemistry, resource management, operations research, information science, public health, and network science. Each team is expected to include advisors and team members who represent a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary interests in applied problem solving and modeling. To obtain additional information about the ICM and to obtain a complete listing of all the team designations, please visit the ICM Website at: https://www.sodocs.net/doc/5f2136885.html,.

Major start-up funding for the ICM was provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation (through Project INTERMATH) and COMAP. Additional support is provided by The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). COMAP's Mathematical Contest in Modeling and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling are unique among modeling competitions in that they are the only international contests in which students work in teams to find a solution. Centering its educational philosophy on mathematical modeling, COMAP uses mathematical tools to explore real-world problems. It serves the educational community as well as the world of work by preparing students to become better informed—and prepared—citizens, consumers, workers, and community leaders.

Administered by

The Consortium for Mathematics

and Its Applications

Contest Directors

Chris Arney, United States Military Academy, NY Tina Hartley, United States Military Academy, NY Executive Director

Solomon A. Garfunkel, COMAP, Inc., MA