Published: April 25, 2012

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Two University of Colorado Boulder undergraduate student teams have been named among the 10 top winners from a field of 3,697 teams that entered the international Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

Results of the 2012 contest were announced this month by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. The contest took place at the studentsā€™ home institutions Feb. 9-13.

One of the two CU-Boulder teams designated as an ā€œoutstanding winnerā€ was comprised of students Stephen Kissler of applied mathematics, Christopher Corey of electrical and computer engineering and Sean Wiese of computer science. This team also was awarded the MAA Award sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America.

The other ā€œoutstanding winnerā€ from CU-Boulder was made up of students Christopher Aicher and Tracy Babb of applied mathematics, and Daniel Sutton of computer science. This team also was awarded the INFORMS Award sponsored by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Anne Dougherty of CU-Boulderā€™s Department of Applied Mathematics served as faculty adviser to both teams.

According to the contest rules, the students had 96 hours to decide which of two problems to complete, research their problem, come up with a mathematical model, program a numerical model, and write a report. ĢżBoth CU-Boulder teams chose to solve a problem related to scheduling camping for a series of rafters on a long river.

ā€œIt is amazing what they can come up with in just 96 hours,ā€ Dougherty said, noting that all six of the winning students are in the Engineering Honors Program.

ā€œCU has had remarkable success over the years in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling,ā€ she added. Ģżā€œSince 2000, weā€™ve had a total of 11 ā€œoutstandingā€ papers. Ģż I donā€™t know of any other universities with this type of track record. ĢżIt is a testament to the quality of our students and the strength of CUā€™s programs that weā€™ve been so successful for so long.ā€

Only 9 percent of the teams entering the contest this year were from the United States. The others were from Canada, China, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Malaysia, Palestine, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Official results are posted at

Contact:
Anne Dougherty, 303-492-4011
Carol Rowe, 303-492-7426

ā€œCU has had remarkable success over the years in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling,ā€ said Anne Dougherty of CU-Boulderā€™s Department of Applied Mathematics. ā€œSince 2000, weā€™ve had a total of 11 ā€œoutstandingā€ papers. I donā€™t know of any other universities with this type of track record. It is a testament to the quality of our students and the strength of CUā€™s programs that weā€™ve been so successful for so long.ā€