HHS Advances Two Teams to Second Round of the Moody's Mega Math Challenge

Two math teams from Harrison High School, coached by HHS’ math teacher Michael Ciavarella, competed in the annual Moody’s Mega Math Challenge, with both teams advancing to the second round of judging.

Moody’s Mega Math Challenge is a competition sponsored by the Moody’s investment firm and draws from the country’s top high school mathematicians along the east coast. Teams comprised of no more than five students have 14 hours to download a problem facing society that accomplished engineers and mathematicians are currently working on and devise a solution that is supported mathematically. The teams must rely solely on each other as well as the internet. Schools that enter the competition are limited to two teams per school.

“Both Harrison teams were comprised of all juniors; one team was all girls and the other team was all boys,” said Mr. Ciavarella. “I am proud to say that for the first time in school history, we had both of our teams advance to the second round of judging. This is extremely impressive as the contest is open to public, private, and charter schools as well as schools geared specifically toward math and science.”

Team 1 Members:
Andrea Bolivar
Ella Eisinger
Sarah Ryan
Mihoko Sakanaka
Jessica Scazzero

Team 2 Members:
Dillon Bogart
Evan Burger
Andrew Carton
Amr El Azizi
Phil Milana

The problem established for this year’s Moody’s Mega Math Challenge asked students to analyze the rising costs of college. Students had to develop a mathematical model to determine what students actually pay including factors such as financial aid, family wealth, and the cost of financing. In the paper, students also created a ranking system to gauge the quantitative and qualitative aspects that affect one’s decision to attend college, as well as contrasting the short and long term rewards and liabilities for entering the workforce with a STEM-focused Bachelors degree. To accomplish this task, the teams created their own EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) formula as well as a model to project future costs of college.

“Participating in the Moody’s Challenge required us to learn modeling, a field of mathematics new to all of us,” said HHS junior Evan Burger. “It was interesting for us to solve problems external to what we learn to solve in school.”

Over 5,000 teams entered the Moody’s Mega Math Challenge and only 201 advanced to the second round. The HHS Boys team went on to receive one of 53 Honorable Mention Awards – ‘a proud distinction given the rigorous and intense scrutiny that each paper endured,’ the Moody’s Foundation wrote.

“I am very proud of both teams as they both displayed tremendous teamwork, problem-solving skills, and creativity,” said Mr. Ciavarella. “I believe that mathematically we can compete with any public or private school in the country.”