TJ Students Take Top Prize In Global Math Problem-Solving Competition

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — A team of students from Fairfax County's Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology came out on top of a prestigious international math competition Monday.

The team of 11th and 12th graders participated in the MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge, a competition challenging students to use math to solve real-world problems. Thousands of high school juniors and seniors from the U.S., as well as some from the UK, competed in this year's event on 650 teams.

The TJ team won the top prize of $20,000 in college scholarships out of over $100,000 in the competition's awards. The team consisted of Rishabh Chhabra, Om Gole, Rishabh Prabhu, Jerry Sheng, and Laura Zhang and was coached by TJ math teacher Quinn McFee. TJ also received a Technical Computing Runner-up prize of $2,000 and Outstanding Communication of Results prize of $500.

"I think it was a really close competition, but when it came down to it, our hard work and rigorous research separated us from the other teams," said Sheng, a member of the winning team. "The fact that this year’s focus was related to sustainability was so thrilling to me, as society is moving towards a more environmentally-friendly future, and I was able to combine my passion for biotechnology and math modeling."

At this year's M3 Challenge, students spent 14 hours in early March using math to solve the assigned real-world challenge. The challenge asked competitors to predict the growth of electric bike use and its impact on society and other modes of transportation.

Eight teams, including the TJ team, became finalists after their submissions were reviewed by 120 Ph.D.-level mathematicians. Finalists presented their solutions to a panel Monday in New York City.

"Coming from an industrial math background myself, I am so impressed by my students’ accomplishments individually and collaboratively," said McFee, the TJ team's coach. "I’ve noticed their growth in teamwork after participating in M3 Challenge and that has been a unique benefit for them compared to other math competitions."

In all, about 6 percent of competing teams won scholarship prizes. The runner-ups were Houston-based St. John’s High School students Ananya Das, Caden Juang, Oliver Lin, Ben Lu, and Addison Spiegel, who won a $15,000 scholarship, and Lincroft, New Jersey-based High Technology High School students Michael Gao, Amanda Guan, Kevin Guan, Amanda Lin, and Kevin Liu, who won a $10,000 scholarship. Other finalist teams from Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pennsylvania; Adlai E Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois; and F.W. Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida received team scholarship prizes of $5,000 each.

The MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge is in its 18th year. Not only does it challenge students to solve real-world problems with math, but it also encourages them to pursue more education and careers in math, computational and data sciences, and technical computing. The program is led by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and sponsored by math computing software developer MathWorks.