International Mathematical Modeling Challenge

The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IMMC or sometimes IM2C) is an international mathematical modeling competition for high school students in team mathematical modeling co-sponsored by COMAP and the NeoUnion ESC Organization. Teams are selected on a country-by-country basis, with each country sending its top two teams to the competition. The IMMC was inspired by the HiMCM, a similar contest sponsored by COMAP but mainly attracting teams within the United States. The HiMCM in turn was established in the 1990s to create a high school counterpart to COMAP’s MCM. Contestants in the IMMC are given five days to research (the contest permits the use of any inanimate source) and write a mathematical paper detailing their mathematical model for a given situation. At the conclusion of the five-day period, papers are sent to an international expert committee composed of mathematics faculty from the world’s leading universities. Traditionally, 3-4 teams are awarded the top designation of Outstanding and invited to an awards ceremony, held in a different country each year.

Team selection
Each participating country is expected to choose its two best teams of four contestants each to compete in the IMMC. Globally, different methods have been used to select teams from their respective countries.

Hong Kong holds the contest early and allows any interested team to participate. A national judging panel selects the two best papers to move on to the international round of the competition. In 2015, 60 papers came out of the Greater China region alone.

In 2015, the United States used a different qualification process, inviting the top two teams from the 2014 HiMCM to compete in the IMMC. In 2016, the United States adopted a hybrid of Hong Kong’s approach and its own former approach: any team receiving a score of Meritorious or higher in the 2015 HiMCM (roughly 25% of competing teams) was invited to compete in the 2016 IMMC. As in Hong Kong, the United States held the IMMC early, completed a national round of judging, and selected the two best papers to move on to the international round.

Most countries use a selection process similar to that used by Hong Kong, and countries entering the IMMC for the first time will also likely adopt a similar process.

Judging
Papers passing the national selection round move on to the international expert judging panel. In 2015, the Expert Panel included:


 * Dr. Frank Giordano, Naval Postgraduate School, USA, former Head of the Department of Mathematics at West Point Military Academy (Chair)
 * Dr. Konstantin K. Avilov, Institute for Numerical Mathematics, Russia
 * Dr. Ruud Stolwijk, Cito, The Netherlands
 * Dr. Yongji Tan, Fudan University, China

2015
17 teams from the following countries competed in the 2015 IMMC:


 * Belgium
 * Hong Kong SAR
 * Macau SAR
 * People's Republic of China
 * Russia
 * Singapore
 * Slovakia
 * Thailand
 * The Netherlands
 * United States of America

Of these teams, four were awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony in Hong Kong:

Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA, USA
 * Advisor, Radu Toma
 * Eric Foster
 * Kathryn Li
 * Allison Zhang
 * Andrew Lee

The Affiliated High School of Peking University, Beijing, China
 * Advisor, Yaoyang Wang
 * Donghan Wang
 * Haimei Zhang
 * Wanchun Shen
 * Dingding Dong

Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), Singapore
 * Advisor, Samuel Lee
 * Siah Kelly
 * Wang Huaijin
 * Li Anqi
 * Lee Estelle

Shanghai Nanyang Model School, Shanghai, China
 * Advisor, Gao Junxiang
 * Cai Yiyi
 * Chen Zhihao
 * Xiao Zhijun
 * Yan Yijia

Seven were awarded the Meritorious designation:


 * Clover Hill High School, USA
 * National Junior College, Singapore
 * Sint-Jozefscollege Turnhout, Belgium
 * MSU, Russia
 * Diocesan Girls' School, Hong Kong
 * Yuen Long Public Secondary School, Hong Kong
 * Utrechts Stedelijk Gymnasium, The Netherlands

Four were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:


 * Mahidol Wittayanusorn School, Thailand
 * IGiL SB RAS, Russia
 * Pui Ching Middle School, Macau
 * Gymnazium Alejova 1, Slovakia

Two were awarded the Successful Participant designation:


 * PENTA College CSG, The Netherlands
 * Gymnazium Postova 9, Slovakia

2016
40 teams from the following 23 countries or regions competed in the 2016 IMMC:
 * Australia
 * Belgium
 * Bulgaria
 * Canada
 * Chile
 * People's Republic of China
 * Germany
 * Hong Kong
 * Japan
 * Macau
 * Malaysia
 * Mexico
 * The Netherlands
 * New Zealand
 * Philippines
 * Russia
 * Singapore
 * Slovakia
 * South Korea
 * Taiwan
 * Thailand
 * United Kingdom
 * United States of America

Of these teams, three were awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony at the International Congress on Mathematics Education in Hamburg, Germany:

Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA, USA
 * Advisor, Radu Toma
 * Eric Foster
 * Kathryn Li
 * Allison Zhang
 * Andrew Lee

Diocesan Girls' School, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR)
 * Advisor, Yeung Po Ki
 * Cheng Wai Chung
 * Liang Hui Lin
 * Poon Ho Kiu Allie
 * Jia Jimsyn

Pui Ching Middle School, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR)
 * Advisor, Lee Ho Fung
 * Wong Tsz Chun
 * Ling Janice
 * Ngai Chi Ki
 * Lynn Shung Hei

Fourteen were awarded the Meritorious designation:
 * Chesterfield County Math/Science High School at Clover Hill, Midlothian, Virginia, USA
 * Trinity College, East Perth, Western Australia, Australia
 * National Junior College, Singapore
 * Perth Modern School, Subiaco, Western Australia, Australia
 * Staatliches Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium, Kaiserslautern, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
 * Hermann Wesselink College, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
 * Gymnazium Postova 9, Kosice, Slovakia
 * KVIS Science Academy, Rayong, Thailand
 * Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), Singapore
 * Pui Ching Middle School, Macau (SAR)
 * Kaohsiung Municipal Senior High School, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
 * Gyeonggi Science High School for the Gifted, Suwon, South Korea
 * Whangarei Boys High School, Northland, New Zealand
 * Seoul Science High School, Seoul, South Korea

Nine were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:
 * Sint-Jozef College, Turnhout, Belgium
 * Shanghai Experimental School, Shanghai, China
 * Mahidol Wittayanusorn School, Nakornpatom, Thailand
 * Sacred Heart Canossian College, Macau (SAR)
 * College Nassau-Veluwe, Harderwijk, The Netherlands
 * Holy Cross College, Bury, Lancashire, United Kingdom
 * Nin Hua High School Klang, Selangor, Malaysia
 * Tainan Tzu Chi Senior High School, Tainan, Taiwan
 * Gymnazium, Alejova 1, Kosice, Slovakia

Fourteen were awarded the Successful Participant designation:
 * Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Novosibirsk, Russia
 * Beijing National Day School, Beijing, People's Republic of China
 * OLVV Lowerdes College, Edegen, Belgium
 * Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
 * Philippine Science High School, Metro Manila, Philippines (x2)
 * Kanazawa University Senior High School, Ishikawa, Japan (x2)
 * First English Language School, Sofia, Bulgaria
 * Liceo Eduardo De La Barra, Valparaiso, Chile
 * Senator O'Connor College School, North York, Ontario, Canada
 * Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus E., Nuevo León, México (x2)
 * Gymnasium Westerburg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

2017
49 teams from the following 27 countries/regions competed in the 2017 IMMC:
 * Argentina
 * Australia
 * Canada
 * China
 * Denmark
 * Germany
 * Hong Kong (SAR)
 * Israel
 * Japan
 * Macau (SAR)
 * Malaysia
 * Mexico
 * New Zealand
 * Papua New Guinea
 * Philippines
 * Poland
 * Portugal
 * Russia
 * Singapore
 * Slovakia
 * South Korea
 * Taiwan
 * Thailand
 * The Netherlands
 * Turkey
 * United States of America
 * US Virgin Islands

Of these teams, one was awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony at the Harvard University, Cambridge MA., USA along with three randomly selected Meritorious teams from Argentina, South Korea and Russia.

NC School of Science and Mathematics, NC, USA
 * Advisor, Daniel Teague
 * Ahmad Askar
 * Nikhil Milind
 * Nikhil Reddy
 * Sreeram Venkat

Seven were awarded the Meritorious designation:
 * Gyeonggi Science High School for the Gifted, Suwon, Gyeonggi, South Korea
 * Capital High School, Helena, MT, USA
 * St Paul's Co-educational College, Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR)
 * Staatliches Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium, Kaiserslautern, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
 * St Andrew's Scots School, Buenos Aires, BA, Argentina
 * St Stephen's College, Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR)
 * School 179 of Moscow Institute of Open Education, Moscow, Russia

Twenty-seven were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:
 * Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium Westerburg, Westerburg, Germany
 * Beijing National Day School, Beijing, China
 * Perth Modern School, Subiaco, WA, Australia
 * AY Jackson Secondary School, Toronto, ON, Canada
 * Sacred Heart Canossian College, Macau, Macau (SAR)
 * Ukarumpa International School (1), Ukarumpa, EHP, Papua New Guinea
 * Utrechts Stedelijk Gymnasium (1), Utrecht, The Netherlands
 * II Liceum Ogólnokształcące z Oddziałami (1), Warszawa, Mazowieckie, Poland
 * SMJK Katholik Petaling Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
 * Whangarei Boys High School, Whangarei, New Zealand
 * Philippine Science High School - Main Campus (1), Quezon City, Philippines
 * Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem, Israel
 * Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High School, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
 * John Monash Science School, Clayton, VIC, Australia
 * Pui Ching Middle School, Macau, Macau (SAR)
 * Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
 * II Liceum Ogólnokształcące z Oddziałami (2), Warszawa, Mazowieckie, Poland
 * Shanghai Jianping High School, Shanghai, China
 * Kanazawa University Senior High School (1), Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
 * North London Collegiate School Jeju, Seogwipo, Jeju Island, South Korea
 * H.C. Orsteds Gymnasiet (1), Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
 * Utrechts Stedelijk Gymnasium (2), Utrecht, The Netherlands
 * Madeans College, Bucklands Beach, Auckland, New Zealand
 * Taichung Girls' Senior High School, Taichung City, Taiwan
 * Raffles Girls' School, Singapore
 * Gymnazium Postova 9, Kosice, Slovakia
 * Kanazawa University Senior High School (2), Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

Fourteen were awarded the Successful Participant designation:
 * H.C. Orsteds Gymnasiet (2), Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
 * Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
 * Ukarumpa International School (2), Ukarumpa, EHP, Papua New Guinea
 * Uygarlik ve Bilgi Okulu, Izmir, Turkey
 * Gymnazium Paula Horova, Slovakia
 * St. Croix Central High School (1), Christiansted, VI, US Virgin Islands
 * St. John Paul II Catholic Secondary School, Scarborough, ON, Canada
 * Secondary School of Valongo, Valongo, Portugal
 * Philippine Science High School - Main Campus (2), Quezon City, Philippines
 * Kamnoetvidya Science Academy School, Rayong, Thailand (x2)
 * Jurong Junior College, Singapore
 * St. Croix Central High School (2), Christiansted, VI, US Virgin Islands
 * Eyuboglu College, Istanbul, Umraniye, Turkey

Awards ceremony
The 2015 IMMC winning teams from the USA, Singapore, and China were brought to Hong Kong for the IMMC Award Presentation Ceremony on 5 July 2015 at Hong Kong University, sponsored by Guangdong Qtone Education Co., Knowledge Magazine, Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, Competition on System Modeling & Optimization (COSMO), CUHK, HKACE, and the Hong Kong Entrepreneurs and Executives Club.

Special guests included Hong Kong political leader the Honorable Mrs. Fanny Law and movie directors Mr Tsui Siu-Ming and Mr Tang Yat-Ming. Professor Frederick Leung, Chairman of the Board of Faculty, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, gave the opening speech. Law encouraged educators in Hong Kong and elsewhere to continue to pursue the type of educational innovation promoted by the IMMC. Given that the 2015 problem revolved around mathematically modeling a movie filming production schedule, directors Tsui and Tang discussed their own experiences in the movie industry and how applicable teams’ models were to real-world movie filming decisionmaking.

The 2016 IMMC winning teams from the USA and Hong Kong, in addition to the Meritorious German team, were brought to Hamburg, Germany for the IMMC Award Ceremony on 26 July 2016 at the University of Hamburg as part of the quadrennial International Congress on Mathematical Education. Dr. Sol Garfunkel described how the contest has evolved and discussed plans for the future.

On August 7, 2017, with the efforts by COMAP and NeoUnion ESC Organization an award ceremony was held at Harvard University, Cambridge MA., USA. The Outstanding team from the USA and three randomly chosen Meritorious teams from Argentina, South Korea and Russia were invited to attend.

2020 This year due to the closing of venues caused by Covid-19 there will be no formal IMMC awards ceremony. Rather IMMC will make resources available to schools and countries/regions of the Outstanding teams to allow them to fund local ceremonies which they can schedule as their situations permit. It is our hope to hold the 2021 award ceremonies at the new dates for ICME in Shanghai.

2021 This year due to the continued effects of Covid-19 there will be no formal in person IMMC awards ceremony. Rather IMMC will make resources available to schools and countries/regions of the top teams to allow them to fund local ceremonies which they can schedule as their situations permit. However, ICME Shanghai, China was held as a hybrid event where teams will be acknowledged virtually and videos from the winning teams were featured on the afternoon of July 15, 2021.

2022 This year due to the closing of venues caused by Covid-19 there will be no formal IMMC awards ceremony. Rather IMMC will make resources available to schools and countries/regions of the Outstanding teams to allow them to fund local ceremonies which they can schedule as their situations permit.

Media coverage
The IMMC has received broad press coverage throughout the world, with the majority of coverage concentrated in the U.S. and Greater China. The IMMC has been featured by:

Apple Daily

China News Review (CRNTT)

Commercial Radio Hong Kong (人民大道中)

DBC Radio

Hong Kong Commercial Daily

Hong Kong Economic Journal

KRON 4 Television

KTSF Television

Metro Daily

Ming Pao

On.CC

Oriental Daily News

Palo Alto Daily Post

Palo Alto Weekly

San Jose Mercury News

Shumo

Sing Tao Daily

Sky Post

Ta Kung Pao

The Sun

Wen Wei Po

Wo Ke Ji

Leadership
The IMMC is overseen by an international Organizing Committee of the following people:


 * Solomon Garfunkel, COMAP, USA – Chair
 * Keng Cheng Ang, National Institute of Education, Singapore
 * Fengshan Bai, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Science, Tsinghua University, China
 * Alfred Cheung, NeoUnion ESC Organization, Hong Kong SAR
 * Frederick Leung, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
 * Vladimir Dubrovsky, Moscow State University, Russia
 * Henk van der Kooij, Freudenthal Institute, The Netherlands
 * Zbigniew Marciniak, Warsaw University, Poland
 * Mogens Allan Niss, Roskilde University, Denmark
 * Ross Turner, Australian Council for Educational Research, Australia

Advisory/Academic Committee for IMMC in Greater China:


 * Professor Kam Fai Wong, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong
 * Professor Tong Yang, Head of Department of Mathematics, City University of Hong Kong
 * Professor Wai Ki Ching, Head of Department of Mathematics, University of Hong Kong
 * Professor Guanhua Chen, Head of Department of Chemistry, University of Hong Kong
 * Professor Houmin Yan, Dean of College of Business, City University of Hong Kong
 * Professor Hong Yan, Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
 * Professor Fiona Yan Liu, Director of Cognitive Computing Lab, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
 * Professor Michael Ng, Head of Department of Mathematics, Hong Kong Baptist University
 * Dr. Simon Hoey Lee, Deputy Secretary-General, Our Hong Kong Foundation
 * Mr. Terry K.W. Li, Associate Director, Sun Hung Kai Properties-Kwoks’ Foundation Ltd.

Expert Panel for IMMC in Greater China:


 * Professor Wai Ki Ching, the University of Hong Kong - Chair
 * Mr. James Hung, Hong Kong International Mathematics Olympiad – Convener
 * Professor Kam Fai Wong, Chinese University of Hong Kong
 * Professor Jinxing Xie, Tsinghua University and China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling (CUMCM)
 * Dr. Zhonghua Qiao, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
 * Dr. Tuen Wai Ng, University of Hong Kong
 * Dr. Junhui Wang, City University of Hong Kong
 * Professor Chi-Kong (Kevin) Ng, Chinese University of Hong Kong
 * Dr. Simon To, Hong Kong Baptist University

Future contests
The 2017 IMMC contest period will end on May 8, 2017 (national rounds within certain countries will end earlier). Results will be announced in June, and teams awarded the Outstanding designation will be honored.