Mathematics Contests

For 2023-24, students from Lesley University will be participating in the Putnam and MCM/ICM. Practice sessions for both are currently underway during the Fall 2023 semester. If you are interested in either competition, please contact Prof. Kozai for further information.

Mathematical/Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling

I have organized and advised students participating in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling. Undergraduates participate in teams of three and solve a real-world problem using mathematical modeling, submitting a paper with their results at the end of the four day competition. Think of it as a hackathon but with mathematical modeling. Teams can choose one of six problems posted at the beginning of the competition, and topics range from discrete problems, continuous problems, data insight, operations research/network analysis, environmental sciences, and policy. You can find questions from previous years on the COMAP website.

Teams in the contest leverage a variety of skills, such as mathematics, statistics, programming, modeling, engineering, and the sciences. Thus, you do not need to be a mathematics major to participate. Students of all majors are encouraged to compete, and in fact, many successful teams include students who are not mathematics majors.

The 2024 contest will take place February 1-5, 2024. Please contact me if you are interested in participating. If you do not have teammates in mind already, they will be assigned to you from among the students who express interest.

2018 Results (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology)
Honorable Mention (top 24% of 331 US teams, top 45% of 10670 teams overall): Rachel Broughton, Qikai (Bruce) Huang, and Phillip Shephard
Successful Participant: Bochuan Lyu, Maxx Philiposian, Muqing Zheng

Putnam Competition

The Putnam Competition is an individual mathematics competition taken on the first Saturday of December. The competition consists of two 3-hour sessions, each consisting of six challenging questions from a range of mathematical areas. The median score is usually 1 point out of 120, and a score over 20 will often place you in the top 500 students nationwide.

Along with Dr. Carlisle, I organized weekly puzzle-solving sessions geared at preparing students for the Putnam Competition at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The sessions begin with a roughly 10 minute mini-lesson, followed by time for students to attempt questions in the same topic area. The questions will include easier questions to build experience and confidence, and they gradually increase in difficulty to Putnam-level questions. This way, students need not begin at the level of the Putnam exam, but they can work their way up and learn new mathematics along the way.

The 2023 Putnam Competition will be on December 2, 2023. Please e-mail me if you are interested in participating.

2019 Results (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology)
Top 200: Reed Phillips (rank: 143.5)
Top 500: Zixin Fan
The team of Evan Cochrane, Zixin Fan, and Reed Phillips finished 40th out of 488 institutions.

2018 Results (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology)
Top 500: Jiasheng Hu, Bochuan Lyu

Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest

The Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest is a warm-up competition for the Putnam. This contest is still largely proof-based, but some computation questions also frequently appear. The level of difficulty is a step below the Putnam, and perfect scores are not unheard of. The length is also only 2.5 hours, so it is a good alternative to the Putnam for those who enjoy math puzzles and competitions but want a smaller time commitment.

SIMIODE Challenge Using Differential Equations Modeling

The SCUDEM competition is a new competition that is similar to the larger MCM/ICM competition. Teams of three students are given a list of open-ended scenarios, and they are given a week to provide a solution to one of them using differential equations modeling. Teams submit reports at the end of the one week period, and then give a 10 minute presentation at a nearby regional site on the following Saturday. Teams are then given a small modification to the modeling scenario they have selected that they are to incorporate into their final solution by the end of the day. Unlike the MCM/ICM competitions, the regional site format of SCUDEM gives students an opportunity to meet other participants from nearby institutions.