If you enjoy math, modeling and real world problem solving you might enjoy solving the problems in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). The task is to mathematically model and computationally solve a real world problem. These contests are designed specifically for undergraduate students and about a thousand teams worldwide compete each year. The problems in both the Interdisciplinary and Mathematical Modeling contests have a broad scope drawing from several areas. Therefore, we welcome students from different departments.
For example the problems from the 2011 competition were:
<ol>
<li>Produce a ski half-pipe design to maximize the vertical "air" (jumps) a snowboarder can make.
<li>Place repeater nodes in a wireless network to optimize coverage and throughput.
<li>How environmentally and economically sound are electric vehicles? Is their widespread use feasible and practical?
</ol>

<h3> Schedule 2015-2016: </h3>

Nov 4, 4pm in CSC-333: Introductory meeting <br><br>
Reading week: A chance to start practicing on some of the training problems. <br>
See "Mathmodels" link on at bottom left. <br><br>

Nov 18 or 25 (Tenatively) Meeting to discuss and review the problems you solved and challenges encountered. <br><br>

Rest of fall and winter until competition: approximately bi-weekly review meetings until competition.<br><br>

We may have a local qualifications competition in January.<br><br>

Jan 28-Feb 1: MCM/ICM international competition

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<br><br>

<h3> Schedule Previous years: </h3>
To help you prepare we have a weekly seminar and practice competitions here at UofA: <br>

<li><b>Weekly seminar</b> Wednesdays 5-6:30pm  in CSC 3-49. <br> 
<ul> The objective of the seminar is both to learn mathematical problem solving in general and particular strategies for the MCM/ICM competitions. Meetings generally include one or more of:
<li> Learning by example: Studying and solving problems from previous years competitions.
<li> Techniques and strategies.
</ul>
<li><b>Practice competitions </b> 
<ul> 
<li>Throughout the term we will organize some practice competitions. These will start with small problems that you can solve in an hour or two and progressively get more challenging. 
<li>In Jan 2013, before the real competition we will have a qualifying competition where you solve problems in teams. Typically that will take one day (Saturday), and we will correct and comment on solutions.
</ul>
<li><b>International competition </b>
<ul>
In the international competition teams of three students solve one problem during a full weekend in February 2013. We can qualify and sponsor two to four teams.
</ul>
<li><b>Courses and course credit</b>
<ul>
Success in solving MCM problems (and solving problems in the real world) does not depend on a single course, but your general aptitude and backhground in science, math and computing solutions. However we teach two relevant courses Mathematical Modeling, math372, and Numerical Methods, <a href="http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~vis/courses/num/index418.htm ">cmput418</a>. 
Those who would like to get course credit for the MCM work can do so by registering in cmput418 and solving MCM problems instead of the regular course assignments. (We will generally try to not repeat material taught in courses in the MCM seminars. The seminars will complement courses and focus on the competition problems.)
</ul>

<p>

<h3> Practice problems</h3>
It is a good idea to practice on similar problems of varying difficulty. In addition to preparing for the contest, this will help you develop a unique ability to tackle real-world problems that is not taught in any single course in the university. This experience will be useful in future studies, jobs and life and we think that is the most valuable part of the training. 

Generally solving the problems include the following steps, which we will study and practice:
<ul>
<li> Research: Wikipedia, Textbooks, Scientific papers, General Google searches
<li> Further refine specification of problem
<li> Come up with strategies to model the system. Do  several models from simple/trivial -> advanced/complete
<li> Define how to test models. Locate or generate various test data sets..
<li> Implement model strategies on the computer.
<li> Evaluate the results of your strategies
<li> figure out how to present and graph your data.
<li> Write the paper. (Keep writing concurrently with working on above)
</ul>


<p>


<p>
<hr>
Previous year schedule:

<p>
<b> Schedule Winter semester 2012: </b> <br>
Wednesdays weekly meetings (see fall schedule below) <br><
b> Schedule 2011: </b> <br>
Weekly meetings <b> Wednesdays 5:30-7pm</b> in CSC3-49. <br>
Fri Jan 27 5pm  Information Session CSC-333 <br>
Sat Jan 28 10am-2pm UofA Qualification competition <br>
Fri Feb 5 (Tentative) Results of Quals. Likely 5PM, location CSC 3-49 <br>
Feb 10-13  International MCM/ICM competition  <br>

<p>
The information session on Fri will outline the MCM procedures and give some suggestions for how to be successful. We also recommend you read the rules on the MCM home page and guide from  K. Cline in the links to the left.
<p>
For the UofA qualifier on Sat, we will post problems on this website. You solve the problems, write a PDF report and email the report to us. You can work where you like (at home or in the library), and be alone or in groups of up to three. For groups we ask that you identify in the report who did what aspect.
<p>
The international contest is held over a four day period each February (February 10-13, 2012 this year). During this time, students, working in teams of three, are given an advanced, open ended, mathematical or interdisciplinary modeling problem and asked, over four days, to find a solution and write a report about it.
<p>

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<pre>
Research:
Brainstorm: Interpret question. Specify more details. Possibly study restricted case.
For each topic: How do we find related topics? Keywords   “survey”

Sources: Wikipedia (generally correct) Other web sites (need to verify if trustworthy)
Broad: Scientific American, Science, Nature, Economist
Specialized: Academic journals


Writing: Backwards... 2.5

Problems: Mine, 

1. Each student formulates one him/herself and sloves.
2. Swap problems
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