The award ceremony on Mathematical Contest in Modeling was held in F402 on 26th May. Prof. Zhang Genfa (Academic Registrar), Prof.Stephen Chung(Dean of DST), Prof. FANG Kaitai (Program Coordinator of Statistics Programme) and Prof. GUO Haipeng (Program Coordinator of Computer Science and Technology Programme) presented the prizes offered words of encouragement.
All seven UIC teams of the Statistics Programme achieved satisfactory results. Under fierce world-wide competition, these candidates won two Meritorious Winner prizes, one Honorable Mention prize and four Successful Participant prizes.
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| Prof. Stephen Chung, Dean of DST, with First and Second Prize Winners |
The Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) is a multi-day mathematics competition held by COMAP annually in USA during the first or second weekend in February, since 1985 and sponsored by SIAM, the NSA, and INFORMS. Teams have 96 hours to research and submit their solutions in the form of a research paper. During this time, they may consult any available reference, but may not discuss their problems with anyone outside their team. Several guides containing advice and recommendations for teams or advisors have been published online or in print. It attracts numerous students and faculty advisors from over 500 institutions around the world. In 2010, around 224 teams of 802 colleges located in 14 different countries participated in the MCM.
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| Prof. FANG Kaitai, Program Coordinator of Statistics Programme, with winner students |
This contest challenges teams of students to clarify, analyze, and propose solutions to open-ended problems, and to their ability of expression in English. “When the results were released, I could not even believe it!” Fei Xiangyu who got the Meritorious Winner prize said when he shared his experience and feelings on the award ceremony. When asked about how to find suitable group members, she said: "Originally, we are good friends. Even with some dissention we can still cooperate with each other. Tan Bingdong is good at modeling and computation and Lei Jiao is good at data collecting and research. Their merits plus my strength in writing make us a good team."
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| Group Photo |
Prof. FANG Kaitai (Program Coordinator of Statistics Programme) said, “I was surprised at the outcome. At the beginning, we just treated this match as a training opportunity for students. After all it is the first time we take part in it. However, after pondering, I believe it is reasonable. Our program trains students to think logically, and to speak and write in English. What we taught in class also helped them in applying the skill and knowledge to good purpose.”
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| Prof. GUO Haipeng with winner student |
The outcome was also unexpected for Miss Peng Xiaoling, an Assistant Professor who was in charge of organization in this competition. “I held the same view as Prof. Fang at the beginning. We just gave detailed background information to the candidates. Since time was limited, the teams did not have orientation session. I think they deserve the honor for dedication and hard work.” She claimed that this good news had been a great inspiration to other students. By now, around 40 students had already registered for the national modeling competition of 2011.
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| Fist Prize winner student share her experience |
Besides MCM prizes, Prof. GUO Haipeng (Program Coordinator of Computer Science and Technology Programme) presented the third prize to Xie Shukun, a student from Computer Science and Technology Programme (CST), who participated in the first session of UIC programming competition. According to Dr. Louis Tang, the competition rules were similar to ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. Wang Renxia, the chairman of the student association of Computer Science and Technology Programme, explained the rule, “During contest, the teams are given 3 hours to solve 6 programming problems. Within the limited time, answering three questions correctly will have the third prize. Answering four will have the second prize and answering five or above can get the first prize.” He said that students of CSP would register for the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in the future.
Translator: Vincent GAN
Photo: Cheryl CHEN
Editor: Echo LI
MPRO
