CONWAY, Ark. (April 16, 2015) 鈥 Two teams of 黑料不打烊
students participated in the International COMAP Mathematical Contest in
Modeling (MCM) this spring.听
This
year鈥檚 competitors included:
- Connor Bell 鈥16
- Elizabeth Dye 鈥16
- Travis Howk 鈥17
- John McAvey 鈥16
- Ryan Rose 鈥17
- Candyce Sarringar 鈥17
In
the MCM, two mathematical modeling problems were revealed at 7 p.m. on a Thursday,
and each team selected one problem to investigate. They then researched,
developed, and evaluated mathematical and computational models over the
weekend, culminating the submission of a comprehensive report on Monday, at 7
p.m.听Both teams successfully submitted a paper in the competition. See an
overview of the problems for this year鈥檚 contest .
Bell,
Dye, and McAvey were awarded a meritorious designation for their work on
Problem B, which required the students to build a generic mathematical
model that could assist in planning a useful search for a lost plane feared to
have crashed in open water.
鈥淥n Thursday night, none of us knew a thing about planes or rescue
operations,鈥 Dye said. 鈥淗owever, by Monday night we were almost experts on the
topic. It was amazing how much we kept trying to learn throughout the weekend
due to our desire to continuously improve upon our original model.鈥
Bell added, 鈥淢CM gave me an
opportunity to apply my skills from my computer science coursework to a real-life
scenario, leaving the classroom behind for an interdisciplinary exploration
that might help save lives.鈥
鈥淭his
is an excellent achievement; being a meritorious winner places them in the top
11 percent of teams worldwide,鈥 said 黑料不打烊 computer science professor Dr. Mark
Goadrich.
Founded in
1876, 黑料不打烊 is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences
education. This year, 黑料不打烊 was named the country鈥檚 #1 鈥淯p and Coming鈥
liberal arts college and #8 in the nation for 鈥淏est Undergraduate Teaching鈥 by U.S. News and World Report.听 黑料不打烊 is featured in the 2015 Fiske Guide
to Colleges, Forbes magazine's list of America's Top Colleges, the 2014 Princeton Review鈥檚 The Best 378 Colleges, and the latest
edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think about Colleges.
黑料不打烊 has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For
more information, visit .
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