From February 9 to 13, SUSTech student teams participated in the MCM/ICM Contests and all the teams recently received their awards. Three teams earned international first prizes, 19 teams won international second prizes, while 47 received international third prizes. The SUSTech teams competed with over 60,000 students from regions including North America and the United Kingdom, and completed high-quality English research papers within a very limited time.

SUSTech has always placed great emphasis on the innovation of science and technology among students. Since 2013, SUSTech students have competed in multiple mathematical modeling contests at the municipal, national and international levels. The Department of Mathematics has also invited prestigious guests and visiting scholars to speak to the students and established the Mathematical Modeling Association (MMA). MMA regularly initiates academic discussions, hosts seminars, and posts useful mathematical modeling knowledge on its social media account. MMA has also organized special training sessions for students who are about to take part in the MCM/ICM Contests.

The Mathematical Contest in Modeling and the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (MCM/ICM Contests) are the only international mathematical modeling contests in the world. Despite being rooted in mathematics, MCM/ICM also tests students’ knowledge of economics, management, ecology, resources, security, medicine, future technology and environmental science. The contests also reflect students’ research ability, problem-solving skills, and teamwork spirit, since they require three undergraduates to form a group, build a mathematical model, verify its correctness, and finish an academic paper in four days. 

MCM/ICM are sponsored by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the Mathematical Association of America, Two Sigma Investments, and the Department of Defense Analysis of Naval Postgraduate School.

Original Chinese text by Chen Zihao

English translation by Fan Yining

Proofreading by Chris Edwards