About the Challenge

Each school may enter as many as two (2) teams; each team will consist of three (3), four (4), or five (5) high school juniors or seniors. Teams will solve an open-ended, realistic, and challenging modeling problem focused on real-world issues. Student teams will download the Challenge problem from the website and work to solve the problem on their own, at the place(s) of their choice, and on the day of the Challenge weekend that they selected at the time of registration. Student teams will then upload their solution paper by the given deadline.

Each team must have a coach who is a teacher at their school. A coach may work with one or both teams from his or her school in advance of the Challenge day, but is prohibited from providing any assistance with the Challenge problem to student teams during the Challenge weekend.

After all solution papers have been received at M3 Challenge headquarters, panels of mathematicians serving as preliminary or triage judges will read each solution paper, rank each paper according to the competition guidelines, and eliminate all but the best submissions. A panel of mathematicians serving as final judges will subsequently calibrate the remaining papers and tentatively rank the winning teams.

Top teams are required to make formal presentations of their papers and answer questions about their work. The top six teams will receive awards ranging from $2,500 to$20,000 in scholarship prizes. The individual scholarships will be paid directly to the colleges or universities at which the winning students ultimately enroll. There are no entrance or participation fees.

IMPORTANT: Please read the rules and guidelines for more details.

Prize levels
Each scholarship prize is to be shared equally among all student members of a team.

The final judges also have the option of awarding up to five additional Honorable Mention team awards of $1,000 per team.

Teacher-Coach
The coach's role is to make students aware of the contest, to encourage the organization of the teams of students, and to help prepare the teams for the Challenge.

The coach of each team submitting a solution paper on time and in the proper format will receive an appreciation gift for his or her efforts in helping the team participate. Coaches will receive their gift regardless of the team's final standing in the competition.

Tips for Team Building
It is important that the teams have members with complementary skills. While it is obvious that strength in mathematical modeling is a requirement for solving real-world problems, it is often helpful if one of the team members is adept at writing (and debugging) computer programs if computation should be needed or desired for a solution during the course of the Challenge.

In addition, at least one of the members should have accomplished writing skills, i.e., clear and concise exposition, as a detailed account and summary of the solution is a stated requirement.

Finally, it is suggested that team members have compatible personalities since they will be working intensely together for up to 14 hours, under pressure to meet a deadline, and the potential for frustration is likely.

Recognition
Each successful participant will receive a certificate of participation. Schools of prize-winning teams will receive a plaque.

Presentations and Awards
The presentations by the top winning teams and the awards ceremony will take place six to eight weeks following the Challenge Weekend. At this time, students from the top prize-winning teams will be required to briefly present their winning solution papers and answer questions about their work.

About the Sponsor
The Moody's Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to supporting a variety of nonprofit education, health and human services, civic, and arts and culture programs. Established by Moody's Corporation in 2001, the Foundation's primary area of giving is secondary and higher education with a focus on mathematics, economics and finance. Further information is available at: http://philanthropy.moodys.com.

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO), an essential component of the global capital markets, provides credit ratings, research, tools and analysis that contribute to stable, transparent and integrated financial markets. Moody’sCorporation is the parent company of Moody's Investors Service and Moody's Analytics, encompassing Moody’s non-ratings businesses. With revenues of $2.3 billion in 2007, Moody's employs approximately 3,600 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 27 countries. Further information is available at www.moodys.com.

About the Organizer
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, is an international society of over 11,000 individual members. These include applied and computational mathematicians and computer scientists, as well as other scientists and engineers. Members are researchers, educators, students, and practitioners from 85 countries in industry, government, laboratories, and academia. The Society, which also includes more than 500 academic and corporate institutional members, serves and advances the disciplines of applied mathematics and computational science by publishing a variety of books and prestigious peer-reviewed research journals, by conducting conferences, and by hosting activity groups in various areas of mathematics. SIAM provides many opportunities for students including regional sections and student chapters. Further information is available at www.siam.org.