April 11, 2002
UW undergraduate trio wins big in international mathematics competition
Three University of Washington undergraduates have earned a place among the world’s college math elite in an international mathematics competition.
Ryan Card, Ernie Esser and Jeffrey Giansiracusa won the highest commendation in the 18th Mathematical Contest in Modeling, an annual competition sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. The UW students were one of four teams, among a total of 279 competing in their category, to merit an outstanding ranking for their solution to a complex math problem. In addition, the UW team’s 21-page solution was selected from the four to receive the annual SIAM award from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
“That’s an even finer distinction,” said mathematics Professor James Morrow, who acted as adviser for the team. “I think it’s safe to say that theirs was judged the best of the papers.”
The contest began on Feb. 7, when officials posted two problems to the Web. The teams from the United States and 10 other countries had four days to pick one and devise a solution. They were allowed to refer to Web and library sources, but could not consult with another person.
Participants didn’t get a lot of sleep, Morrow said.
“It’s extremely intense – physical fitness is as important as mental fitness, and probably a lot of coffee is involved, too,” he said.
To support the effort, Morrow negotiated with other faculty to get the students out of homework and to excuse class absences during the four days. He also made arrangements for the competitors to have after-hours access to computer labs and brought in appropriate books from campus libraries so they could stay there and burn the midnight oil. “Any hitch or distraction could throw them off.”
Esser said his group was surprised, but excited, about coming out on top, and credited a scheduling misunderstanding with possibly giving him and his teammates an edge.
“This was the second year our team participated,” he said. “Last year we misread the contest starting time and ended up starting a day late. So maybe this year we had the advantage of being prepared for a three-day contest when in fact we had four full days to work on it.”
Be that as it may, Morrow said, the performance is indicative of the high quality of students at the UW.
“I think they’re incredible,” he said. “It’s an international contest. We competed against the best students, no holds barred, open to the world, and won.”
The problem that the threesome tackled involved devising an algorithm to regulate water flow to an ornamental fountain based on windspeed – the group sought a delicate balance between maintaining an impressive visual spectacle and preventing passersby from getting soaked on windy days.
Card, of Mountlake Terrace, Esser, of Bothell, and Giansiracusa, of Bellevue, will attend SIAM’s annual meeting in Philadelphia in July to present their paper and receive their award. Three other UW teams participated in this year’s contest. Two achieved a meritorious ranking, while the third received honorable mention.
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For more information, contact Morrow at (206) 543-1161 or morrow@math.washington.edu. Esser can be contacted at jesser@u.washington.edu, Giansiracusa at jeffgian@u.washington.edu and Card at mrcard@u.washington.edu.
Information about the competition, including the problems contestants attempted to solve, can be found at www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/2002Results.html. Information on the local teams, including a pdf file of Card, Esser and Giansiracusa’s paper, is available at www.math.washington.edu/~morrow/mcm/mcm.html.
