CONWAY, Ark. (April 16, 2015) – Two teams of Hendrix
students participated in the International COMAP Mathematical Contest in
Modeling (MCM) this spring.
This
year’s competitors included:
- Connor Bell ’16
- Elizabeth Dye ’16
- Travis Howk ’17
- John McAvey ’16
- Ryan Rose ’17
- Candyce Sarringar ’17
In
the MCM, two mathematical modeling problems were revealed at 7 p.m. on a Thursday,
and each team selected one problem to investigate. They then researched,
developed, and evaluated mathematical and computational models over the
weekend, culminating the submission of a comprehensive report on Monday, at 7
p.m. Both teams successfully submitted a paper in the competition. See an
overview of the problems for this year’s contest here.
Bell,
Dye, and McAvey were awarded a meritorious designation for their work on
Problem B, which required the students to build a generic mathematical
model that could assist in planning a useful search for a lost plane feared to
have crashed in open water.
“On Thursday night, none of us knew a thing about planes or rescue
operations,” Dye said. “However, by Monday night we were almost experts on the
topic. It was amazing how much we kept trying to learn throughout the weekend
due to our desire to continuously improve upon our original model.”
Bell added, “MCM gave me an
opportunity to apply my skills from my computer science coursework to a real-life
scenario, leaving the classroom behind for an interdisciplinary exploration
that might help save lives.”
“This
is an excellent achievement; being a meritorious winner places them in the top
11 percent of teams worldwide,” said Hendrix computer science professor Dr. Mark
Goadrich.
Founded in
1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences
education. This year, Hendrix was named the country’s #1 “Up and Coming”
liberal arts college and #8 in the nation for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2015 Fiske Guide
to Colleges, Forbes magazine's list of America's Top Colleges, the 2014 Princeton Review’s The Best 378 Colleges, and the latest
edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think about Colleges.
Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For
more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.