A team of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology students recently competed in the 25th annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling. The students: James Haiston (computer science, Rapid City), Mark Pengitore (mathematics, Corsica) and Lara Heiberger (mathematics, Hermosa).
In the contest, teams of three undergraduate students are given open-ended complex problems. The teams need to research the topic, develop a mathematical model, use a computer to simulate the model and write a technical report. The teams complete the task in one weekend.
The School of Mines team worked on a problem concerning traffic circles. Traffic circles are becoming a popular component of many city transportation systems, but the elements of design and control can greatly vary. The teams were tasked with coming up with a traffic model for a traffic circle that would assist engineers in their design.
Last year, more than 1,000 teams from more than 14 countries participated in the competition. Results from the competition will be released in April. For more information, visit http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/.
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