International Mathematical Modeling Challenge

International Mathematical Modeling Challenge
Founder Sol Garfunkel
Founded at Boston, MA
Type Mathematics Competition
Headquarters Boston, MA
Location
  • International
Official language
English
Co-Founders
 Sol Garfunkel and Alfred Cheung
Parent organization
 COMAP, NeoUnion
Website immchallenge.org

The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IMMC) (sometimes styled as IM2C) is an international competition for high school students in team mathematical modeling co-sponsored by COMAP[1] and the NeoUnion ESC Organization.[2][3] Teams are selected on a country-by-country basis, with each country sending its top two teams to the competition. The IMMC was inspired by the HiMCM, a similar contest sponsored by COMAP but mainly attracting teams within the United States.[4] The HiMCM in turn was established in the 1990s to create a high school counterpart to COMAP’s MCM.[5][6][7] Contestants in the IMMC are given five days to research (the contest permits the use of any inanimate source) and write a mathematical paper detailing their mathematical model for a given situation.[8] At the conclusion of the five-day period, papers are sent to an international expert committee composed of mathematics faculty from the world’s leading universities. Traditionally, 3-4 teams are awarded the top designation of Outstanding and invited to an awards ceremony, held in a different country each year.[9]

Team Selection

Each participating country is expected to choose its two best teams of four contestants each to compete in the IMMC. Globally, different methods have been used to select teams from their respective countries.

Hong Kong holds the contest early and allows any interested team to participate.[10] A national judging panel selects the two best papers to move on to the international round of the competition. In 2015, 60 papers came out of the Greater China region alone.[11]

In 2015, the United States used a different qualification process, inviting the top two teams from the 2014 HiMCM to compete in the IMMC. In 2016, the United States adopted a hybrid of Hong Kong’s approach and its own former approach: any team receiving a score of Meritorious or higher in the 2015 HiMCM (roughly 25% of competing teams) was invited to compete in the 2016 IMMC. As in Hong Kong, the United States held the IMMC early, completed a national round of judging, and selected the two best papers to move on to the international round.[12]

Most countries use a selection process similar to that used by Hong Kong, and countries entering the IMMC for the first time will also likely adopt a similar process.[13][14]

Judging

Papers passing the national selection round move on to the international expert judging panel. In 2015, the Expert Panel included:[15]

Results

2015

17 teams[16] from the following countries competed in the 2015 IMMC:[17]


Of these teams, four were awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony in Hong Kong:[17]

Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA, USA

The Affiliated High School of Peking University, Beijing, China

Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), Singapore

Shanghai Nanyang Model School, Shanghai, China
[18]


Seven were awarded the Meritorious designation:[17]

Four were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:[17]

Two were awarded the Successful Participant designation:[17]

2016

40 teams from the following 23 countries competed in the 2016 IMMC:

Of these teams, three were awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony at the International Congress on Mathematics Education in Hamburg, Germany:[21]

Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Diocesan Girls' School, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR)

Pui Ching Middle School, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR)

Fourteen were awarded the Meritorious designation:[22]

Nine were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:[22]

Fourteen were awarded the Successful Participant designation:[22]

Awards Ceremony

The 2015 IMMC winning teams from the USA, Singapore, and China were brought to Hong Kong for the IMMC Award Presentation Ceremony on 5 July 2015 at Hong Kong University, sponsored by Guangdong Qtone Education Co., Knowledge Magazine, Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, Competition on System Modeling & Optimization (COSMO), CUHK, HKACE, and the Hong Kong Entrepreneurs and Executives Club.

Special guests included Hong Kong political leader the Honorable Mrs Fanny Law and movie directors Mr Tsui Siu-Ming and Mr Tang Yat-Ming.[23] Professor Frederick Leung, Chairman of the Board of Faculty, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, gave the opening speech.[24] Law encouraged educators in Hong Kong and elsewhere to continue to pursue the type of educational innovation promoted by the IMMC. Given that the 2015 problem revolved around mathematically modeling a movie filming production schedule, directors Tsui and Tang discussed their own experiences in the movie industry and how applicable teams’ models were to real-world movie filming decisionmaking.[25][26]

The 2016 IMMC winning teams from the USA and Hong Kong, in addition to the Meritorious German team, were brought to Hamburg, Germany for the IMMC Award Ceremony on 26 July 2016 at the University of Hamburg as part of the quadrennial International Congress on Mathematical Education. Dr. Sol Garfunkel described how the contest has evolved and discussed plans for the future.

The four Outstanding teams and their advisors, plus the two Meritorious Hong Kong teams and their advisors, pose with the dignitaries and organizers of the contest at the 2015 IMMC Press Conference at Hong Kong University

Media Coverage

The IMMC has received broad press coverage throughout the world, with the majority of coverage concentrated in the U.S. and Greater China. The IMMC has been featured by:

Apple Daily
China News Review (CRNTT)
Commercial Radio Hong Kong (人民大道中)
DBC Radio
Epoch Times
Hong Kong Commercial Daily
Hong Kong Economic Journal
KRON 4 Television
KTSF Television
Metro Daily
Ming Pao
On.CC
Oriental Daily News
Palo Alto Daily Post
Palo Alto Weekly
San Jose Mercury News
Shumo
Sing Tao Daily
Sky Post
Ta Kung Pao
The Sun
Wen Wei Po
Wo Ke Ji

Leadership

The IMMC is overseen by an international Organizing Committee of the following people:[27]

Advisory/Academic Committee for IMMC in Greater China:[28]

Expert Panel for IMMC in Greater China:[29]

Future Contests

The 2017 IMMC contest period will end on May 8, 2017 (national rounds within certain countries will end earlier). Results will be announced in June, and teams awarded the Outstanding designation will be honored.

References

  1. ↑ COMAP
  2. ↑ NeoUnion ESC
  3. ↑ International Conference on Industrial and Applied Mathematics
  4. ↑ HiMCM
  5. ↑ IMMC PowerPoint Posted on IMM Challenge Official Facebook Page
  6. ↑ "Harvard University -- A Placement Problem" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "Mathematical Modeling Contests".
  8. ↑ IMMC International Rules
  9. ↑ "National Council of Teachers of Mathematics -- Teaching Matters!" (PDF).
  10. ↑ China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling (CUMCM)
  11. ↑ Hong Kong Polytechnic University - CAM Digest
  12. ↑ IMMC USA Rules
  13. ↑ University of Utrecht -- International Mathematical Modeling Challenge
  14. ↑ "Математическая школа -- Международный конкурс "Математическое моделирование"".
  15. ↑ IMMC PowerPoint Posted on IMM Challenge Official Facebook Page
  16. ↑ MeJ Mathematical Research Association
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 IMMC Results 2015
  18. ↑ Nanmo Model High School
  19. ↑ "National Junior College -- News".
  20. ↑ "Diocesan Girls' School -- Prizes and Awards".
  21. ↑ "The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IMMC)". immchallenge.org. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
  22. 1 2 3 COMAP. "2016 IMMC Results" (PDF).
  23. ↑ Sky Post
  24. ↑ Hong Kong Commercial Daily
  25. ↑ IMMC Awards Ceremony
  26. ↑ Hong Kong Economic Journal
  27. ↑ IMMC PowerPoint Posted on IMM Challenge Official Facebook Page
  28. ↑ IMMC PowerPoint Posted on IMM Challenge Official Facebook Page
  29. ↑ IMMC PowerPoint Posted on IMM Challenge Official Facebook Page
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