UCF MCM/ICM Team Page

The UCF Department of Mathematics is sponsoring our undergraduate students to participate the 2025 Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM) on January 23-27, 2025. We will recruit, organize, and train students to participate in this competition (and cover the registration fees as well). We strongly believe our students will benefit from this unique opportunity.

In the past few years there are more than 20,000 teams participating the MCM/ICM contests throughout the world. Our UCF teams often have been highly ranked, earning multiple Meritorious Awards and many Honorable Mentions.

Students participate as team members rather than as individuals – creating an environment for peer learning and skill development. You could find more information such as contest history, registration, and rules at the website (a brief introduction below)
www.mcmcontest.com

During the competition, each team of 3 undergraduate (or high school students with UCF dual enrollment) students will work as a group on one of the modeling problems from the following 6 categories:

  • MCM Problem A (continuous)
  • MCM Problem B (discrete)
  • MCM Problem C (data insights)
  • ICM Problem D (operations research or network science)
  • ICM Problem E (sustainability)
  • ICM Problem F (policy)

You could view modeling problems from previous years via the webpage
https://www.contest.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/previous-contests.php

This year the competition will start at 5pm on Thursday Jan 23 and end at 8pm on Monday Jan 27. Each team has about 4 days to understand/simplify the real-life problem, formulate appropriate mathematical models, perform model analysis and simulations, interpret their mathematical results etc. At the end, they need to submit their own solution paper, on which they will be judged.

Students who are interested could contact our faculty advisors (contacting information listed at the end) and/or fill in the online teamsheet via the following link

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yx3HLvAlBeeG954VMnRCIDKGfdjsSximNUpMwlsjph4/edit?usp=sharing

We are going to host a training workshop “Essentials of Mathematical Modeling” on Jan 18, 2025, from 10:00am to 3:00pm, in MSB 110 (lunch will be provided). Below is a tentative agenda:

10:00am – 11:00am   Introduction to the MCM/ICM: History and New Changes
11:00am – 11:15amBreak
11:15am – 12:15pmOptimization Approaches for the MCM/ICM
12:15pm – 12:45pmLunch Break (pizza provided)
12:45pm –  1:45pmScientific Computations/Simulations for the MCM/ICM
1:45pm  –  2:00pmBreak
2:00pm  –  3:00pmMock MCM/ICM Competition

Students are welcome to attend the training workshops even they are not planning to participate the competition this year.

Please feel free to contact us with any other questions or concerns

Zhisheng Shuai (Zhisheng.Shuai@ucf.edu)
On behalf of the Faculty Advisor Team