Friends' Central Math Team Named National Finalists In Math Modeling Contest

Four Friends’ Central students have earned spots in a national math contest for their brain power in the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP) the Wynnewood school said.

Seniors Samuel Weiss, Jiwei Cheng, Harrison Burdge, and Neil Goldader earned the designation of National Finalists in the 19th Annual High School Mathematical Modeling Contest (HiMCM), placing them in the top 2 percent of teams competing from around the world.

The contest included 36 hours of continuous work on a particular math modeling problem, the school said.

This year’s problem, “Shop and Ship,” tasked teams with analyzing and choosing optimal placement and numbers of warehouses for an expanding company to meet the one-day ground shipping requirement, how it will affect customers’ tax liability and meet the needs of the greatest number of customers, analyze warehouse locations if clothing and apparel were added to the inventory, and write a letter to their company’s president summarizing recommendations; in total, the report was approximately 30 pages, the school said.

“Neil and Sam were mainly responsible for the algorithm and programming end, since they have a programming background," Cheng said. "Harrison and I did the taxes section and most of the writing. We all had to have a pretty strong math background, but we each brought different strengths to this year’s team – that cooperation on different ends and how they worked together made a big difference.”

The foursome is now moving on to compete in The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge, IM2C, a five-day international competition in April, the school said.

“By participating in this club and the COMAP competition, students really have a chance to dip their toes into applied math, coding, and programming," said Julie Plunkett, Upper School math teacher and advisor for the Mathematical Modeling Club. “I think the kids in this club are so enthusiastic because it’s student-centered – it was founded by kids and is led by kids. Our seniors have ignited enthusiasm among the juniors, and they have very strong plans to continue on with the Club and with participating in these types of competitions in the future.”

Whether participating for the first time or the second, the competition has been a true confidence builder for the team’s participants, the school said.

“I didn’t expect it, but participating in this competition has given me a lot of confidence, and being able to apply the knowledge I have of math modeling to a real-world problem and work on it for 36 hours straight, it helps us see how math can be used in real life issues long after high school," Weiss said.

Goldader, a first time participant, shared Weiss' sentiments.

“Three years ago, I never would have thought that I would be interested in something like this, but it’s given me a lot of confidence in math," he said.

Image via Friends' Central School