EOU STUDENTS EARN HONORABLE MENTION IN WORLDWIDE MATH CONTEST

Published: April 6, 2004

by C.J. Gish
Media and publication writer
University Advancement
541-962-3585 / fax 541-962-3680

La Grande - Several cups of coffee and plenty of trail mix later, the results are in and three Eastern Oregon University students succeeded in earning an honorable mention in the 2004 Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

The trio of seniors included Mike Lindsay (Woodland, Wash.), John Schumacher (Elgin, Ore.) and Yosuke Yamamoto (Tokyo, Japan). The three received the news last week that their team from EOU was among the top 38 percent out of 599 teams worldwide. The MCM contest, which ran from Feb. 4-9, included teams from schools worldwide.

"This was a good year getting into the top 38 percent," said faculty advisor David Allen, professor in mathematics. "They drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of trail mix for a few days."

The five-day event is conducted via the Internet. MCM teams receive a complex problem and spend five days, starting at 5 p.m. Thursday, submitting a paper on how to approach the problem, give results and conclusions. The teams can use any kind of inanimate assistance, such as the Internet, but they are not allowed to talk to a live person.

"Once the competition starts, I can't coach them, I just make the coffee," said Allen. "It's a marathon contest and the students have to pace themselves and not stay up late at night. This year's team kept a steady schedule and didn't work much past midnight and were at it again by 8 a.m. the next morning."

The papers are submitted by 5 p.m. the following Monday and the MCM judges spend a month reading the 20-page papers and ranking them in four categories - Outstanding, Meritorious, Honorable Mention or Successful Participant. Seven teams received an Outstanding Award (the top one percent), 61 teams were given a Meritorious Award (next 10 percent), 159 teams earned an Honorable Mention Award (next 27 percent) and 372 teams were given a Successful Participant Award (final 62 percent).

"It feels good to know that our team was above average," said Lindsay, who plans on attending EOU's master's of teacher education program so he can teach high school math. "It is reassuring to know that our small school can compete with teams from the top institutions. Things that helped in our success were great math professors, especially Dr. Allen."

EOU has participated in the MCM event for the past five years, including earning an Outstanding Award in 1999. Eastern has fielded up to four three-student teams, including last year when two teams participated. Contest results can be found at:
http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/contests/2004/results/mcm.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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