In early May, COMAP released the results of the 2022 Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). Teams from Tongji University achieved good results with 1 Outstanding Winner, 5 Finalists, 11Meritorious Winners, 36 Honorable Mention and 96 Successful Participants. Among them, the team composed of three students from School of Economics and Management (SEM), under the supervision of GUO Ying, an associate professor, won an Outstanding Winner award for Problem E, one of the 44 awards of its kind, taking 0.16% among all the participants.
The certificate of Tongji Team from SEM
The International Mathematical Contest in Modeling is a multi-day mathematical modelling contest held annually in USA, during the first or second weekend in February, since 1985 by COMAP. It is one of the most prestigious mathematical contests in the world. Participants are expected to enter the contest in a team of up to three people, and choose one of the six problems. These problems tend to be open-ended, and are drawn from all fields of science, business, and public policy. Teams have 96 hours to research and submit their solutions in the form of a research paper. During this time, they may consult any available references, but may not discuss their problem with anyone outside their teams.
The Outstanding Winner Award was won by ZHENG Xiangyi and LI Yu from SEM, and ZHU Yunjia from College of Transportation Engineering as a team. They chose the topic of "carbon sequestration in forestry" for Problem E. To start with, the team proposed a carbon sequestration model based on different carbon sequestration mechanisms of forests and their forest products, and drew a preliminary conclusion that forest management plans with appropriate felling were more conducive to carbon sequestration. Then, when economic benefits of forests and more ecological benefits including carbon sequestration were taken into account, a multi-objective programming model was established to assist forest managers in managing and making decisions to maximize forest values. Finally, the optimized model was applied to a specific forest to obtain the carbon sequestration of the forest and its forest products in the next 100 years and to implement the forest management plan that would maximize the value of the forest.
According to the team, cooperation among the team members, the model adjusted flexibly with the change of the data collected, and the logical consistence and completeness in the writing process of the paper were accountable for their success in the contest.
The 2022 MCM, held from February 17 to 21, attracted a total of 15105 universities, 27205 teams and 80693 participants from 22 countries and regions, including Australia, Canada, China, the UK and the US. A total of 153 teams from School of Mathematical Sciences, School of Physics Science and Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, College of Electronic and Information Engineering, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, School of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, College of Transportation Engineering, School of Life Sciences and Technology, School of Automotive Studies, School of Software, SEM, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering and the Freshmen College participated in the contest.
Tongji students achieved good results in MCM for years, and the results continued to improve, which demonstrated the pursuit of excellence of the University and its achievements in accelerating the development of high-quality talent training in basic disciplines.
