The Mathematical Modeling Team Of Lanzhou University Of Technology Won The International Prizes

The Mathematical Modeling Team Of Lanzhou University Of Technology Has Won The International Prize

Lanzhou University of Technology Mathematical modeling Team made great achievements at this year’s MCM-ICM contest in the United States of America. The team came top with 1 Outstanding Winner, 4 Meritorious Winners and 12 Honorable Mentions respectively. The team was under the guidance of Chang Xiaokai, a mathematics lecturer of the College of Science. The modeling team is composed of Zhou Chaojie, Tian Juntong and Liu Qi. Liu Qi of the College of Civil Engineering won the Outstanding Winner. This is the biggest breakthrough since our school participated in the mathematical modeling of American college students in 2015. This year’s competition witnessed 36 teams in the world to win the international prize, and our university is the only university in Gansu Province to win the international prize.

The American College Students Mathematical Modeling Competition 2019 was held from Friday, January 25, 2019 to Tuesday, January 29, 2019. The competition attracted 76110 students, including students from Harvard University (USA), Imperial College of Technology (UK) and Peking University, Tsinghua University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Nanjing University and so on. The proportion of winners was 0.14% for Outstanding Winner, 0.17% for Finalist Winners, 7.09% for Meritorious Winner and 15.35% for Honorable Mention. Compared with the previous year, the number of participants increased by 14888, and the proportion of winners decreased significantly.

The instruction team for Lanzhou University of Technology Mathematical Modeling Science and Technology Innovation Base is composed of more than 20 young teachers from the Department of Mathematics. In order to better prepare for this year’s competition, the competitors submitted papers, had defense presentation and series of other effective preparations. In view of the characteristics of mathematical modeling in the United States, the instructors trained the competitors in areas such modeling theory and methods and its associated software tools.
According to Zhou Chaojie, first prize winner, he said “the process of participating in the competition was far more precious than the joy of winning the prize”. However, his love for modeling pushed him and his team to effectively participate in training processes during the winter vacation in 2018. He familiarized himself with model building and mathematical analysis software such as MATLAB and SPSS, to learn the writing format of papers, and to keep growing and progressing.

Ruan Sihan from College of Civil Engineering won the second prize in the world. She was mainly responsible for the writing and typesetting of papers. During the competition, she helped to transform practical problems into mathematical models, used computer programming to solve models.

The Mathematical Modeling Contest for university students in the United States is jointly held by the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM). The questions are from real life and practical problems in scientific research activities. To answer the questions, mathematical methods, computer technology and relevant background knowledge must be comprehensively applied. Due to these structures in questioning, the competition attracted the active participation of universities and college students from all over the world.