2015 HiMCM commentary

2015 HiMCM commentary

 

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HiMCM Director’s Article Dr. William P. Fox Department of Defense Analysis Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943 wpfox@nps.edu
Dr. Kathleen Snook Mathematics Education Consultant Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, COMAP Bedford, MA 01730 kgsnook@gmail.com

After eighteen years running the HiMCM, I am handing over the contest directorship to Dr. Kathleen Snook. I thank COMAP for their continued organizational support of this important contest, and I especially thank all the advisors and students that have made running this contest so fun!

As we complete the eighteenth year of the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM), we celebrate that this contest is, and continues to be, a fantastic endeavor for students, advisors, schools, and judges. The mathematical modeling ability of participating students and their faculty advisors is very evident in the problem solutions and professional submissions we receive. In efforts to have their teams improve and compete at a higher level, some schools have asked us to visit and discuss the modeling process. We are happy and excited to do so, and we hope this trend continues.

The teams truly accomplished the vision of our founders by providing unique and creative mathematical solutions to complex open-ended real-world problems. This year students chose from two problems, both representing “real-world issues.” (See the Judges’ Commentary that follows for the problem statements.)

The HiMCM is still moving ahead, growing with a “positive first derivative!” We hope this growth continues as more high schools engage their students in mathematical modeling and participate in the contest. Figure 1 shows a
Figure 1: Number of HiMCM teams vs. contest year from 2008-2015
plot of the growth over time. The trend continues to reflect an increasing engagement of high school students in mathematical modeling.

The 2015 contest had 776 registered teams resulting in 719 total submissions (92.07%), a registration increase of about 10% over last year. In total, 2784 students competed in the contest. This represents an increase of 3.5%. Teams from the United States represented 24 states and numbered 318. This number was down a considerable 12% from last year. We had 401 foreign teams, representing a 16.23% growth. China represented about 87% of the foreign entries.

Of the 2784 student participants this year, 1030 or about 36.99% were female, 1702 were male, and 52 did not specify gender. Since the start of HiMCM, 8,261 (36.5%) of 12,606 total participants have been female. We hope that all competing students will continue to pursue further STEM education.

 

Summary of Facts from the 18th Annual Contest

• A wide range of schools/teams competed including teams from the United States, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, and China.
• The 776 registered teams from U.S. and International institutions represent over a 10 % increase in participation.
• There were 2784 student participants, 1754 (63%) male and 1030 (37%) female.
• Schools from twenty-four states in the U.S. participated.

 

Commendation

 

We congratulate all students and advisors for their varied and creative mathematical efforts. We continue to encourage all teams to submit their solutions to experience the learning impact and satisfaction of fully completing this challenging contest. Of the 719 submissions, 273 completed Problem A and 446 Problem B. The 36 continuous hours to work on the problem provided for high quality papers. We commend all teams for the overall quality of their work. Judges frequently comment about the amazing amount of mathematical thought and supporting material students are able to put together and present in their paper within the 36 hours.

Teams again and again prove to the judges that they have “fun” with their chosen problem, demonstrating research initiative and creativity in their solutions. This year’s effort was again a success!