Philadelphia, PA — As local and national governments grapple with the double whammy crises of affordable housing and homelessness, an international math organization has turned to a creative source to come up with a solution: high school students.
This past weekend, 643 teams comprised of nearly 3000 U.S. and U.K. teens put their math smarts to the test to find answers to these pressing issues as they vied for a top spot in MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge (M3 Challenge) and a portion of more than $100,000 (£75,000) in scholarships.
A program of the Philadelphia-based Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), M3 Challenge is an annual internet-based, intensive math modeling contest designed to motivate students to study and pursue careers in applied mathematics, computational science, data science, and technical computing.
Working in teams of 3-5 during the March 1-4 weekend, high school juniors and seniors across the U.S. and its territories and sixth form students in England, Wales, and British schools overseas were challenged to use mathematical skills, research, and brainstorming to evaluate data, develop models, and propose answers about the future of housing availability and costs and the growing number of unhoused people. The goal? To help governments and communities make plans for the next several decades.
“The cost of housing in the U.S. and the U.K. has increased faster than people’s incomes, making rent or mortgage payments challenging for many,” said Dr. Karen Bliss, Senior Manager of Education and Outreach at SIAM. “This issue is often due to a shortage of available housing, which has reached crisis levels and has been associated with a significant increase in homelessness in many large cities.”
“Stable housing can ease homelessness and is often an important first step in helping people tackle other challenges like addiction, mental health issues, and unemployment, but increasing the housing supply is slow and requires significant financial investment,” Bliss explained. “There are also other complex issues to consider, such as land restrictions, population growth, financial constraints, and longevity of a housing structure.”
SIAM turned to participating students for insight, looking for answers to questions such as: How do we solve these intertwined crises, especially given that they are often exacerbated by unforeseen circumstances such as natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and economic downturns? Can we predict long-term changes in the housing supply and unhoused population? If so, how can we use this information to devise real, long-term solutions for homelessness?
Teams had to submit their solutions—including an executive summary of their findings written in the form of a brief to the government—within 14 hours of downloading the problem, replicating the tight deadlines often demanded in the real world.
“M3 Challenge always chooses an up-to-date problem for the competition, which allows us to connect our personal lives to the modeling process,” said Karn Kaura, student at The Blake School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and M3 Challenge participant. “Everyone who participates becomes better thinkers, mathematicians, programmers, and most importantly, problem-solvers by the end of the 14 hours.”
The students’ submissions will be assessed by an international panel of Ph.D.-level mathematicians. who will select six finalists from across the U.S., England, and Wales from the hundreds of participating teams. Finalist teams will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to participate in the competition’s final judging event, which will take place on April 29.
37 awards will be given as scholarship prizes, with the champion team receiving $20,000.
“The open-ended nature of the M3 Challenge problem provides ample space for teams to explore various avenues, fostering creativity and ingenuity,” said Dr. Jennifer Gorman, assistant professor of mathematics, Lake Superior State University and M3 Challenge judge and Problem Development Committee member. “Year after year, I’m astounded by the teams’ innovation and dedication, and I’m confident this year will be no exception.”
According to Dr. Bliss, while many students are motivated by the prospect of winning scholarship money for college, some compete simply because the experience is rewarding and fun.
“For me, tackling real-world problems and formulating a modeling approach helps me connect the models I’ve learned to real situations that don’t necessarily have a ‘correct’ answer,” said Curtis Ying, student at The Blake School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and M3 Challenge participant. “There are so many viable approaches, but learning to frame an open-ended problem such that we can create a model or apply an existing model has improved my critical thinking and adaptability.”
View the M3 Challenge 2024 problem statement. Learn more about M3 Challenge.
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an international society of 14,000 individual, academic and corporate members from 100 countries. SIAM helps build cooperation between mathematics and the worlds of science and technology to solve real-world problems through publications, conferences, and communities like chapters, sections and activity groups. Learn more at siam.org.
MathWorks is the leading developer of mathematical computing software. MATLAB, the language of engineers and scientists, is a programming environment for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numeric computation. Simulink is a block diagram environment for simulation and Model-Based Design of multidomain and embedded engineering systems. Engineers and scientists worldwide rely on these products to accelerate the pace of discovery, innovation, and development in automotive, aerospace, communications, electronics, industrial automation, and other industries. MATLAB and Simulink are also fundamental teaching and research tools in the world’s universities and learning institutions. Founded in 1984, MathWorks employs more than 6,000 people in 34 countries, with headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, USA. For additional information, visit mathworks.com.
