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MCM Student Competition |
MCM, the Mathematical Contest in Modelling, challenges teams of students to clarify, analyse, and propose solutions to open-ended problems. The contest attracts diverse students and faculty advisors from over 500 institutions around the world. Features of the contest include:
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The selection and adjudication of realistic problems chosen with the advice of experts in industry and government. |
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A weekend for teams to prepare solution papers within a clearly defined format. |
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The ability of participants to draw on outside resources including computers and texts. |
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An emphasis on clarity of exposition in judging, with the best papers published in professional journals. |
University faculty members can be part of MCM by serving as a team advisor. The advisors help recruit, organise and prepare a team of undergraduates for the contest. Team solutions are adjudicated and placed in a hierarchy of four categories: "Successful Participant", "Honourable Mention", "Meritorious", and "Outstanding Winner".
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Major funding for MCM is provided by the National Security Agency. |
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Additional support is provided by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). |
The Department of Applied Mathematics at Stellenbosch University has taken part in this competition for many years by enlisting one or two teams of three third year students every year. Prof Jan van Vuuren has acted as advisor for the department's teams since 1997. The participating teams and the competition problems tackled by these teams during the period 1999-2002 are outlined below.
The team taking part in 1999 consisted of Adele Geldenhuys, Werner Gründlingh and Marcel Villet. Their task was to model the effects on the life support mechanisms of the earth if an astroid of diameter 1 km was to impact directly on the south pole (a situation not too dissimilar to the storyline of the movie Deep Impact). The team concentrated on the anticipated rise in sea level as a result of melted ice at the pole, as well as on possible changes in the earth's orbit around the sun. The team was placed within the "Successful Participant" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Werner Gründlingh, Adele Genldenhuys, Marcel Villet and Prof Jan van Vuuren |
One of the teams taking part in the 2000 competition consisted of Cobus Carstens, Wynand Winterbach and Eon Zuurmond. Their task was to devise an optimal placement pattern of a minimal number of radio transmitters in a given geographical region so as to avoid interference of transmitter frequencies, yet transmit across the whole region. The team was placed within the "Successful Participant" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Cobus Carstens, Wynand Winterbach, Eon Zuurmond and Prof Jan van Vuuren |
The other team taking part in the 2000 competition consisted of Stephen Benecke, Henri Hakl and Carl Scheffler. Their task was to devise an algorithm capable of warning air traffic controllers when any two of a potentially enormous number of aircraft in a given airspace came too near to each other (this topic was probably inspired by the movie Pushing Tin). The team was placed within the "Successful Participant" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Stephen Benecke, Henri Hakl, Carl Scheffler and Prof Jan van Vuuren |
One of the teams taking part in the 2001 competition consisted of Cobus Jacobs, Hendri Botha and Izak Snyman. Their task was to design an efficient evacuation strategy for a forecasted natural disaster, such as a hurricane, from the coastal region in the American state of South Carolina. The team was placed within the "Honourable Mention" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Cobus Jacobs, Hendri Botha, Izak Snyman and Prof Jan van Vuuren |
The other team taking part in the 2001 competition consisted of Francois Malan, Christopher Mumbeck and Deter de Wet. Their task was to build a mathematical model capable of determining whether it would be better to use a solid disc wheel instead of an ordinary spoked wheel during cycling races, given a set of conditions, including wind angle, wind speed, route gradient, etc. The team was placed within the "Outstanding Winner" category during adjudication of their report. The other two winners of the competition (out of more than 250 teams tackling this problem worldwide) were from Ireland and the United States.
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| From left to right: Francois Malan, Christopher Mumbeck, Prof Jan van Vuuren and Deter de Wet |
One of the teams taking part in the 2002 competition consisted of Markus Kruger, Louis Brewis and Ingrid Mostert. Their task was to design a mathematical model capable of advising airlines to what extent to overbook on their flights so as to compensate for cancellations, yet not result in a situation where too many passengers are left stranded because of overfull flights. The team was placed within the "Successful Participant" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Markus Kruger, Louis Brewis, Ingrid Mostert and Prof Jan van Vuuren |
The other team taking part in the 2002 competition consisted of Renier Marchand, Luther Terblanche and Ashley Marcus. Their task was to build a mathematical model capable of regulating the height of a water fountain so as to minimise water spilled out of its base pond (of a given shape), by taking into account wind speed and direction. The team was placed within the "Honourable Mention" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Renier Marchand, Luther Terblanche, Prof Jan van Vuuren and Ashley Marcus |
One of the teams taking part in the 2003 competition consisted of Deon Borman, Maret Cloete and Evan Lezar. Their task was to design a mathematical model capable of advising film shooting crews on how to stack cardboard boxes (and how many to stack), so as to provide a soft landing for a stuntman performing a jump on a motorcycle, from a ramp over some large object of specified dimensions. The team was placed within the "Honourable Mention" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Ms Maret Cloete, Prof Jan van Vuuren, Mr Evan Lezar and Mr Deon Borman |
The other team taking part in the 2003 competition consisted of Albert Strasheim, Niel Thom and Conrad Visagie. Their task was to build a mathematical model capable of finding an optimal placement and positioning of an ionizing radiation device (called a gamma knife unit) so as to treat a brain tumor without damaging surrounding healthy brain tissue. The team was placed within the "Successful Participant" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Mr Albert Strasheim, Prof Jan van Vuuren, Mr Conrad Visagie and Mr Niel Thom |
One of the teams taking part in the 2004 competition consisted of Bernard Broens, Cecilia du Toit and Grant Crosse. Their task was to design a mathematical model capable of deciding which of fingerprinting techniques or DNA sampling was more accurate as a means of personal identification. The team was placed within the "honourable mention" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Mr Bernard Broens, Prof Jan van Vuuren, Ms Cecilia du Toit and Mr Grant Crosse |
The other team taking part in the 2004 competition consisted of Christo Rautenbach, Jean Marais and Jacobus Swanepoel. They worked on the same problem of fingerprinting versus DNA sampling, and their team was also placed within the "honourable mention" category during adjudication of their report.
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From left to right:
Mr Christo Rautenbach,
Prof Jan van Vuuren,
Mr Jean Marais and Mr Jacobus Swanepoel |
One of the teams taking part in the 2005 competition consisted of Pascal Brandt, Carl Crous and Peter Eilers. Their task was to design a high way toll booth system that optimizes throughput of vehicles (in the sense that too few toll booths in the system causes a queue of vehicles waiting to enter the system from the high way, whilst too many toll booths in the system causes congestion when the vehicles attempt to fan in and re-enter the highway lanes after paying toll fees). Their team was placed within the "honourable mention" category during adjudication of their report.
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From left to right:
Prof Jan van Vuuren,
Mr Carl Crous,
Mr Peter Eilers and Mr Pascal Brandt |
The other team taking part in the 2005 competition consisted of JD de Caies e Freitas, Van Aarde Krynauw and Emmerentia Thiart. They worked on the same problem of designing an optimal toll booth system layout, and their team was placed within the "successful participant" category during adjudication of their report.
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From left to right:
Prof Jan van Vuuren,
Ms Emmerentia Thiart, Mr JD de Caires e Freitas and Mr Van Aarde Krynauw |
One of the teams taking part in the 2006 competition consisted of Morne Chamberlain, Retha Heymann and Corne Potgieter. Their task was to design an optimal strategy for positioning and moving a sprinkler system when irrigating an 80m x 30m field, using a pump and system of pipes with given specifications and ensuring that the field is neither over nor under watered. Their team was placed within the "meritorious winner" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Mr Morne Chamberlain, Prof Jan van Vuuren, Ms Retha Heymann and Mr Corne Potgieter |
The other team taking part in the 2006 competition consisted of Elsa du Plessis, Benjamin Krige and Milton van Rooy. They worked on the same problem of designing an optimal strategy for positioning and moving a sprinkler system, and their team was placed within the "honourable mention" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Mr Benjamin Krige, Prof Jan van Vuuren, Ms Elsa du Plessis and Mr Milton van Rooy |
One of the teams taking part in the 2007 competition consisted of Andreas Hafver, Chris Rohwer and Louise Viljoen. Their task was to design an optimal strategy for passenger boarding of commercial airliners. Their team was placed within the "outstanding winner" category during adjudication of their report. They also received the SIAM prize for the best solution.
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| From left to right: Prof Jan van Vuuren, Mr Andreas Hafver (seated), Mr Chris Rohwer and Ms Louise Viljoen (seated) |
The other team taking part in the 2007 competition consisted of Dirk Basson, Jan Botha and Jaco van Zyl. They worked on the same problem of designing an optimal strategy for passenger boarding of commercial airliners, and their team was placed within the "meritorious winner" category during adjudication of their report.
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| From left to right: Prof Jan van Vuuren, Mr Dirk Basson (seated) Mr Jan Botha and Mr Jaco van Zyl (seated) |