Twelve (12) undergraduate students worked relentlessly to find solutions to three critical real-world problems. Working in four teams, each comprising three students, the groups worked on these problems as part of the Consortium of Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP)-organised Mathematical Contest in Modelling (MCM) 2018.
Held globally every year, the contest is web-based and is open to undergraduate and high school students all over the world. This year, over 8,000 students competed for the International COMAP Scholarship Award. With the objective of turning theory into practice, the competition looks at powering solutions for the 21 st century through mathematical applications and modelling resources. The idea behind the contest is that mathematics was invented to help humans understand and manage the world around them.
Six problems were posed this year, of which the IITGN students have selected three. These comprised Multi-hop HF Radio Propagation (the students will be developing a mathematical model for signal reflection off the ocean), How Many Languages? (the students will look at improving global tourism, interpretation of international relations, etc. by studying over 6,900 languages on Earth) and Energy Production (the students will be developing a set of goals for interstate energy compact after profiling four states for their consumption of energy).
The International COMAP Scholarship Award worth $9,000 will be awarded to the top four teams and $1,000 to the school/institute represented in the month of April 2018.
Prof Raj Srinivasan
University of Saskatchewan
“Although aimed at solving critical problems of the fore, the contest also provides an excellent opportunity to develop interpersonal skills through teamwork. Research, analytics and applied intelligence are key enablers. We are excited! At the end of these rigorous 96 hours, the world will have surprising and novel solutions to these crucial problems. The solutions will be guiding principles for policymaking in their respective areas in the forthcoming years, and our students are working with the same vision – transforming lives in future.”
