In the Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling (CUMCM), 86 of 103 UIC teams won awards at the national level and provincial level, including two national first prizes, six Guangdong first prizes, 13 Guangdong second prizes, 29 Guangdong third prizes, and 38 winning prizes, which is a record high in the number of national and provincial awards.

CUMCM is an annual contest for undergraduates worldwide, organised by the China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (CSIAM) to enhance students' abilities to develop mathematical and/or computer models to solve simplified real-world problems in engineering, management, etc. It has been held annually since 1992.

In 2023, nearly 180,000 participants of 59,611 teams from 1,685 universities and colleges from China, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, etc., signed up for the contest. Among them, 299 national first prizes were selected in the undergraduate category, with a winning percentage of only 0.55%.

Zhang Zitao, Nie Ziyang, and Huang Yongyan from the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) and the Faculty of Business and Management (FBM) teamed up and won the first prize nationally and provincially. They completed the challenge of constructing a model and writing a paper within a limited timeframe with clear team division of work, pre-competition preparation, and active discussion, generating new ideas and viewpoints. The team expressed their gratitude to the teachers for their strong support before and after the competition.

Zhang Zitao, Nie Ziyang, Huang Yongyan (from left)

Liu Ruoyang, Liu Jinsui and Zhang Yixin participated in the contest as teammates and were also the national and provincial first-prize winners. The team felt fulfilled and satisfied with their journey in the mathematical modelling competition, where they encouraged each other and collaborated closely to turn the challenging process into a pleasant and rewarding experience. They recognised the need for time management and paper details improvement, which will be their focus for future efforts.

Liu Ruoyang, Liu Jinsui, Zhang Yixin (from left)

UIC's FST has organised systematic summer training for the participants each year. It also invited teams and students who had participated in the competition to share their experiences, helping candidates familiarise themselves with the contest, including the previous test content and procedures. FST has been awarded the Best Organisation award in Guangdong Province.

From FST, MPRO

Reporter: Cecilia Yu

Photos provided by the interviewee

Editor: Deen He