Australian student teams in the International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM2C) show that maths can help with real-life, everyday decision making.
Coordinated in Australia by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), IM2C is a mathematical modelling competition that invites teams of up to four students from secondary schools to visualise, understand and apply mathematics in order to develop an original mathematical model that solves a common problem.
Australian teams entered for IM2C 2018 used their research, mathematical and creative abilities to develop a mathematical model to address a problem that students might face in their daily lives: deciding which hospital would be the best choice for non-emergency treatment.
Australia’s two best solutions and reports from a pool of 12 national finalists were from Canberra’s Radford College and Baulkham Hills High School in Sydney’s north-east. Both were given a Meritorious Achievement award, the highest category in 2018.
The Radford College team was made up of Year 12 students Ryan Stocks, Brianna Wiseman, Emily Li and Stone Sima, with team advisor Kym Palfreyman. Baulkham Hills High School’s Year 12 team members were Clement Luong, Ezra Hui, Laeeque Jamdar and Alexander Tan, with team advisor Elizabeth Sree Kuma. Their entries will now be judged against 54 team solutions and reports from around the world in the IM2C 2018 international round.
The other 10 finalists in the IM2C 2018 national round were:
- Lyneham High School, Canberra: Ananya Ravi, Khubaib Qureshi, Celine Choi and Emily Brown (Year 9), with team advisor Rajesh Prasad
- Marist College Canberra: Tommy Lu and Akshat Jain (Year 10), with team advisor Tony Zhang
- Northern Beaches Secondary College, Manly Campus, Sydney: Elden Loomes, Jay Mendham, Celina Diep and Katie Ringdahl (Year 11), with team advisor Kate Munro
- Brisbane Boys College, Brisbane: James English, Xavier Catford, Ometh Rajapakse and Ethan Waugh (Year 11), with team advisor Chicri Maksoud
- Ballarat Grammar School: Thomas Burnett, Annabella Lewis, Amy Zuell and Luke Williams (Years 10 and 11), with team advisor Branden Olver
- Camberwell Girls Grammar School, Melbourne: Sherry Gan, Amy Miao, Tracy Chen and Yvonne Jin (Year 11), with team advisor Ken Trufitt
- John Monash Science School, Melbourne: Vladimir Mikho, Boris Deletic, Nicholas Warren and Joshua Nibbs (Year 12), with team advisor Luke Bohni
- Ringwood Secondary College, Melbourne: Emma van Dijk, Andras Krajko and Dean Stevens with team advisor Donna Mackinnon (Years 11 and 12)
- Perth Modern School, Perth: two finalists – Kartikeya Bisht, Revant Bisht, Kai Chen and Yuqing (Sunny) Lu (Year 12); and Connor Redfern, Rachel Taylor, Alexander Wyatt and Parmida Ghorbanian (Year 12), both teams advised by Glen McClelland.
Ross Turner, project director for IM2C at ACER, commended the 12 national finalists, and the mathematical modelling work of all Australian national competition entrants.
“With 163 Australian teams entered for IM2C 2018, we have seen a huge increase in interest in mathematical modelling this year,” Mr Turner said. “Programs like IM2C are leading the way in helping students to see how mathematics can be applied to solve real-world problems.
“What is especially pleasing is that many schools have seen that IM2C is an opportunity to engage students from different year levels in a challenging but accessible mathematical activity.”
For more information, visit www.immchallenge.org.au.
Read more about the students from Radford College and their winning entry.
See the IM2C Student Guide