2019 Australian maths modelling challenge winners

28 May 2019: Teams from Brisbane Boys College and Canberra’s Lyneham High School have been selected as Australia’s two top entries in this year’s International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM²C), eclipsing 140 other submissions.

The teams each received a ‘meritorious achievement’ award from the Australian judging panel and will progress to the international judging round for 2019. The international results will be known in July.

Coordinated in Australia by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the IM²C sees students use their research, mathematical and creative abilities to develop a mathematical model to address a real world problem. This year, teams were asked to use mathematical modelling to determine what might be a sustainable population for the Earth under current conditions, and to model a possible future sustainable global population based on projected changes to policy and environment.

IM²C in Australia saw continued growth in 2019. A total of 142 teams from 49 schools in the ACT, NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia submitted reports within the competition period.

The judges identified 22 teams as ‘national finalists’ that had produced reports strong enough for very close consideration and, from these, three team reports were given awards:

MERITORIOUS ACHIEVEMENT

• Brisbane Boys College, Toowoomba: James English, Ethan Waugh, Xavier Catford and Ometh Rajapakse (Year 12), with team advisor Chicri Maksoud
• Lyneham High School, Canberra: Khubaib Qureshi, Emily Brown, Sreeya Das and Junwei Bai (Year 10), with team advisor Bhavya Bhalla

HONOURABLE MENTION

• Perth Modern School, Perth: Avalon Shaw, Talola John, Tina Soodi Shoar and Aryan Gupta (Year 11), with team advisor Glen McClelland.

ACER’s Ross Turner, IM²C Australia Director, said, “The two top teams both included students who were national finalists in 2018, suggesting that experience and practice in using mathematical modelling helps teams to improve their understanding and work. Their reports are now in the hands of the international judging panel.”

“Congratulations to everyone involved for taking on this challenging competition to solve real world problems.”

NATIONAL FINALISTS

New South Wales:

• James Ruse Agricultural High School, Carlingford:
  •  Eva Ge, Haibing Wang, Jason Liu and Natalie Le, with team advisor Tali Chew
  • Justin Chen, Raymond Shao, Harrison Hu and Borborick Zhu, with team advisor Margaret Ramsay
  • Michihiko Killalea, Han (Andy) Lin, Edmund Guo and Darryl Chen, with team advisor Vi Luu
• Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly Campus:
  • Martin Le, Andre Mitchell, Toby Nguyen and Alex Todd, with team advisor Kate Munro
  • Elden Loomes, Jay Mendham, Katie Ringdahl and Alanna Mandredini, with team advisor Kate Munro
  • Hinata Suzuki, Kane Jackson and Richard Ng, with team advisor Kate Munro
• Presbyterian Ladies College Sydney, Croydon:
  • Jennivine Chen, Angeni Bai, Amanda Lu and Christina Shi, with team advisor Dianne Balkizas
• Sydney Boys High School, Surry Hills:
  • Rayne Fangwu, Martin Lee, Duy Ngo and Chen Zhang, with team advisor Andrew Wang

Queensland:

• Brisbane Boys College, Toowong:
  • Matthew Chen, Cody Fang, Ethan Lo and Angus Scroggie, with team advisor Chicri Maksoud
• Somerville House, South Brisbane:
  • Genevieve Hughes, Nicola Hesse, Katelyn McHugh and Imogen Berridge, with team advisor Trevor Redmond
  • Alexandra Liessman, Adeleine Watson, Serine Lee and Claire Chan, with team advisor Trevor Redmond
  • Brigit McMahon, Sophie Morrison, Olivia Krause and Joan Cheng, with team advisor Trevor Redmond
• St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill:
  • Yang Zhang, Matthew Cho, Patrick Gleeson and Justin Jeyarajah, with team advisor Noel Covill

Victoria:

• Ballarat Grammar School, Wendouree:
  • Annabella Lewis, Thomas Burnett, Luke Williams and Amy Zuell, with team advisor Delwyn Oliver
• Caulfield Grammar School, St Kilda East:
  • Zefeng Li, Chloe Woodburn, Ethan Connolly and Anthony Blaher, with team advisor Kulan Ranasinghe

Western Australia:

• Perth Modern School, Subiaco:
  • Tristan Le, Henry Yapeter, Matthew Kuan and Kim Ho, with team advisor Mark White
  • Ryan Joseph Anson, Raymond Li, Jay Sharma and Aakash Annadurai, with team advisor Glen McClelland
  • Nicholas Mahoney, Hariharan Shanka, Alexey Trushin and Aaryan Singh, with team advisor Glen McClelland
  • Stan Jolly, Ann Cao, Ashley Griffiths and Valiant Asfar, with team advisor Glen McClelland

Judging in the IM²C 2019 international round will be completed in July. For more information, visit www.immchallenge.org.au