A team of three University of Delaware students has taken top honors in the world's premiere contest in mathematical modeling. Every year, the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP) sponsors the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). The contest challenges teams of up to three undergraduates to solve an open-ended problem in four days. This year, more than 3800 teams registered for the contest, but only 1162 submitted a complete solution. Student teams must propose mathematical models supported by the latest scientific research and present a comprehensive analysis of the resulting solution. Two problems are posed during the contest, and students are free to chose either one. This year, the problems were "Take a bath" asking teams to model the effects of the melting of the North Polar Ice Cap due to global warming, and "Creating Sudoku Puzzles" asking teams to algorithms for constructing Soduku puzzles of varying difficulties. This year, UD entered three teams, one consisting of three students, the other two consisting of two students each.

Undergraduates Matt Thies, Bob Liu and Zachary Ulissi earned an Outstanding designation for their work on the "Take a Bath" problem. The Outstanding designation was awarded to only 9 teams, placing UD in the top 1% worldwide. Their report will be published in the UMAP journal next fall. Undergraduates Donald Knieriem and Robert A Mitchell III earned a Meritorious designation for their project report on the Sudoku problem. The Meritorious designation is the second highest and has been given to the top 13% of completed reports this year. Undergraduates Stephen Johnson and Kyle Thomas earned a Successful designation, reserved for those who enter a complete project report. All teams were coached by Louis Rossi, Associate Professor of Mathematics.

The University of Delaware has a close relationship with this special modeling contest. One of the past COMAP presidents is former University of Delaware President and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics David Roselle. The University of Delaware has entered teams in the contest for the last six years, and for the last five, has had teams earning the Meritorious designation.

The official COMAP press release is available for download at http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/contests/2008/results/ .