Washington State University

Department of Mathematics

Math Team Receives Honorable Mention

For 2008 Mathematical Contest in Modeling

Three undergraduate majors, Natalie Baerlocher, Kimberly Hansen and Brianne Griggs received Honorable Mention for their participation in the 24th annual International Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). They displayed enthusiasm and hard work in their mathematical modeling and interdisciplinary problem solving. 1162 teams representing institutions from fourteen countries participated in the contest that ran from Thursday, February 14th to Monday, February 18th, 2008. During that time the team chose one of two problems from the Internet, researched it, developed a mathematical model of the problem, wrote a computer program to simulate the model and then wrote a paper on the problem. They worked without help from anyone during the contest.

Faculty members Mark Schumaker and David Allen helped to prepare the students for the contest through a series of workshops given during the fall of 2007 and January 2008.