Date: Apr 30th, 2020.
Source: Jinan University-University of Birmingham Joint Institute

For the first time, three teams from Jinan University were designated as finalists in the 2020 Mathematical Contest in Modeling/Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (MCM/ICM) on April 28. In addition, nine teams were named Meritorious Winners, and 34 teams won honorable mentions and several other awards.

As a Sino-foreign cooperative institute on mathematics, the Jinan University-University of Birmingham Joint Institute attached great importance to the organization of the contest. Together with JNU's College of Information Science and Technology, the institute selected quality teachers to supervise the participants.

Although unified training was canceled because of Covid-19, students from the institute actively competed online with more than 10,000 teams from prestigious universities in China and abroad, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Peking University and Tsinghua University. JNU had three students named finalists winners; four Meritorious Winners, involving six students; 15 honorable mentions, with 27 students; and 25 successful participants, totaling 48 students.

Sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Application, MCM/ICM is the only international mathematical competition in modeling, a pioneer in the field. Problems involve many domains, including economics, management, resources, ecology, medicine and security. This challenge is designed to improve students' ability to solve real-world problems with mathematics and develop their interpersonal skills through teamwork. It requires them to possess basic mathematical ability, as well as scientific and commercial thesis-writing skills in English.

In 2019, 0.14% of participants were named Outstanding Winners, 0.17% were finalists, 7.09% were Meritorious Winners and 15.35% received honorable mentions.