The Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling (CUMCM), organized annually since 1992 by China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, is listed among the first 19 contests of China’s University Competition Rankings. In 2019, 42,992 teams with nearly 130,000 participants from 1,490 colleges/universities from China, the US and Singapore were registered for the contest.
Local distinguished universities in Shanghai including Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tongji University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, East China Normal University have been organizing and encouraging their students to register for this contest. The aim of the contest is to improve students' understanding of mathematics, especially mathematical modeling and mathematical software, and to enhance students' motivation for studying mathematics and to cultivate students' creativity and overall ability.
About the Contest
CUMCM requires participating teams to develop mathematical and/or computer models to solve a simplified real-world problem in engineering or management. Participants are not required to master in-depth expertise in advance, but only need to have studied mathematics courses in colleges and universities. This allows for greater flexibility for participants to develop their creativity. In three days, participating teams should submit a solution package detailing hypotheses, model specification and estimation, calculation method design and computer implementation, hypothesis testing, and model modification. The contest awards shall be based on the rationality of the hypothesis, the creativity of the modeling, the correctness of the results and the clarity of writing.
Procedures
Participating teams will work on the same contest questions and will submit their solutions through CUMCM’s website via the Membership menu or email their solutions to the assigned email address.
The annual contest lasts for about 72 hours and is usually scheduled around the weekend. In the contest, up to three students (they must be from the same institution, but it does not matter whether they are from majors in mathematics or from non-mathematical fields) advised by at most one teacher (optional) form a team. University level teams may only choose the “university type” question while college level teams may choose between the “university type” and the “college type” questions in the contest. The contest is not open to graduate students.
During the contest days, the students can use any references or materials available (including the materials on the INTERNET), but discussions with the advisor or out-of-team members in any way (including discussions online) are forbidden.
Participants may download the contest questions via the official website of the contest after the contest starts and shall complete the task within the time limit.
The participating institutions are expected to organize and supervise the procedures to ensure the standardization and fairness of the contest to the greatest content.
SEF students’ awards in mathematical contests:
http://www.sef.shisu.edu.cn/ee/7f/c1649a126591/page.htm
