Carroll Math Teams Perform Well in International Competition

Carroll Math Team Poses for a Photo

HELENA – The Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) recently announced the results of the annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) & Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM), held in January 2017. Six of the seven Carroll College teams competing in the competition placed, at a minimum, in the top fifty percent of all participants.

The MCM/ICM is a unique international contest for undergraduate students. It challenges teams of students to clarify, analyze, and propose solutions to open-ended real-world problems. Students participate as team members rather than as individuals, creating an environment for sharing knowledge and skills. Student teams are given 96 hours to analyze a single open-ended problem, develop a model of the problem, solve the model, and write a report.

This year, 21 Carroll students volunteered to compete in seven teams of three students. In the contest, each team selected one of six open-ended real-world problems. This year’s problems involved (A) managing the Zambezi River, (B) determining merging patterns following highway toll barriers, (C) analyzing the effects of self-driving, cooperating cars on public roadways, (D) optimizing the passenger throughput at airport security checkpoints, (E) implementing smart growth theories into city designs, and, (F) providing policy recommendations to create a sustainable life-plan and making a living experience on Mars in the year 2100 better than the Earthly one in 2095. This year, 16,928 teams from colleges and universities across the globe competed in the MCM/ICM.

Three of Carroll’s seven teams were ranked as "Meritorious Winners," placing them in the top 10% of all teams. Three teams were ranked as “Honorable Mention,” placing them in top 50% of teams, and one team was ranked as "Successful Participant."

  • MCM Problem A, Meritorious Winner:  Kellen Miller, Greg Jones, Michael Bradt
  • MCM Problem B, Honorable Mention:  Jordan Trinka, Joseph Zepeda, Anthony Nuno
  • ICM Problem D, Meritorious Winner:  Jesica Bauer, Erica Wiens, Joseph Ikehara
  • ICM Problem D, Meritorious Winner:  Nathan Boone, Terry Cox, Dylan Allen
  • ICM Problem D, Honorable Mention:  Frank Pope, Joyce Lui, Morgan Shimkus
  • ICM Problem D, Successful Participant:  Cristina Lopez, Cordell Andersen, Daniel Bradt
  • ICM Problem F, Honorable Mention:  Andrew Johnson, Daniel Olszewski, Bryce Samwel

Carroll teams have placed in the top 1% in the MCM/ICM in 2003, 2006 and 2010. Learn more about the competition.