Challenge Checklist for M3 Challenge

Use this Challenge Checklist to ensure you’re keeping track of tasks and their completion leading up to, during and after Challenge weekend.
Download/Print the Checklist

Registration

To Do	Details
Check Eligibility	Review eligibility requirements in the official Rules and Guidelines.
Complete Online Registration	What you’ll need to register: 1. School name, full address, phone number 2. Coach’s email address and a back-up email address 3. Minimum of three students, maximum of five 4. Full names of all students on the team 5. Each student’s individual email address, gender, and grade The coach will be asked during the registration process to certify that they and all student team members have read and understand the official Rules and Guidelines.
Verify Team Information	All members must verify the accuracy of the team data. Certificates are generated from the data exactly as it is entered at registration, or as revised by the deadline.
Login Credentials	Your team ID # and password will be automatically generated and sent via a confirmation email message when the coach registers. Do NOT share your team ID # or password outside of your team. Every team’s ID # and password are different.
Consent to Participate	Each team member’s Consent to Participate form must be completed before the start of Challenge weekend, either by the participant (if the participant is 18 years or older) or their parent/guardian (if the participant is younger than 18). Please indicate ethnicity; Challenge organizers value the opportunity to track and improve diversity and equity.

Preparing For The Challenge

To Do	Details
Review Available Resources for Teams	There are plenty of free resources available to prepare teams. Here are the top 6 things we recommend checking out: 1. Modeling handbooks 2. Sample Problems / Practice Problems 3. Scoring Guide 4. Learn Technical Computing 5. Modeling Videos 6. Solution paper templates
Review Scholarship Awards	Review Scholarships and Recognition to find out what winning teams will receive and check out the extra M3 Technical Computing Award for teams opting to code as part of their solution. Don’t forget the trip to New York for finalists!
Request Free Software	MathWorks offers free technical computing software to participating teams. Click here to request MATLAB. For information on all available options, see Access Software.
Practice!	Work through sample problems; make sure you can apply things you’ve learned or utilize programs you plan to use ahead of time so you can be successful on Challenge weekend.
Attend Webinars	Attend one of our free webinars to learn about how M3 Challenge works, how you can leverage MATLAB in the Challenge, or how math modeling experts would solve practice problems.
Plan Ahead	Unfortunately, M3 Challenge is not able to make accommodations for events such as internet or power outages during registration or at any time during Challenge weekend. Have a back-up plan/location in mind just in case.
Plan for Challenge Weekend	When will your team begin its 14 hours of work? Where will you work? What will you eat? How are you organizing your team’s tasks? Do you have your login credentials?

Challenge Weekend

To Do	Details
Rise to the Challenge	Download the problem and read it carefully several times. Then make assumptions, define variables, build a solution, analyze and assess it, and write your solution paper and executive summary. If you wrote code to qualify for the extra Technical Computing Awards, include it in your paper. SUBMIT! Watch this video for a tutorial of how to submit your paper – you can upload your solution as many times as you like during the 14-hour work period. We’ll use the most recent upload as the solution of record. We recommend uploading early, so you know how it works!

To Do

Details

Rise to the Challenge

Download the problem and read it carefully several times. Then make assumptions, define variables, build a solution, analyze and assess it, and write your solution paper and executive summary. If you wrote code to qualify for the extra Technical Computing Awards, include it in your paper. SUBMIT!

Watch this video for a tutorial of how to submit your paper – you can upload your solution as many times as you like during the 14-hour work period. We’ll use the most recent upload as the solution of record. We recommend uploading early, so you know how it works!

After Challenge Weekend

To Do	Details
Coaches: Certify Authenticity of Work	Coaches will be prompted to certify authenticity of their students’ work after Challenge weekend, which will become available on the “Authenticate” page behind the team login.
Await Judging Decisions	Teams will be notified as judging is completed, typically within six weeks of Challenge weekend. Check the important dates page.

Final Event

To Do	Details
Qualified Teams Present Papers at Final Event	M3 Finalist teams and Technical Computing Awardees will be identified and invited to New York City to present their paper, answer questions about their models, and receive awards. Travel, accommodation, and meals are provided and paid by the Challenge. Those teams also are guaranteed to win one of the scholarship awards available.
Provide School Details for Scholarships	Students on teams that win scholarship awards will be required to submit information about their chosen college in order to have their scholarship money released. See required Consents and Certifications within the Official Rules and Guidelines.