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 |
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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. Teacher-coach’s email address and a back-up email address 3. Minimum of three students, maximum of five, all from the same school 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 teacher-coach registers. Do NOT share your team ID # or password outside of your team. Every team’s ID # and password are different. |
Parental Consent Form | Each student team member must have their parent or guardian login with the team credentials to electronically indicate their consent or sign themselves of they are 18+. All consents must be completed by Challenge weekend. Please indicate ethnicity: Challenge organizers value the opportunity to track and improve diversity and equity. |
Preparing For The Challenge
To Do | Details |
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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: either the Word document version (with helpful tips for what to include in your paper), or the MATLAB Live Script version (if you plan to use MATLAB for technical computing) |
Review Prizes | 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! | Run 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. |
Q&A Session | Check out the practice problems; here you can ask the problem authors or MATLAB experts questions during live text chat times. |
Plan Ahead | No accommodations can be made for teams if such unfortunate circumstances like power outages were to occur during registration or at any time during the Challenge so plan ahead as much as possible. |
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 |
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Rise to the Challenge | Download the problem! Digest and define your problem, make assumptions, define variables, build a solution, analyze and assess it, and write your executive summary. If you have written code to qualify for the extra Technical Computing Award, append that code to your paper. SUBMIT! |
After Challenge Weekend
To Do | Details |
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Teachers/Coaches Certify Authenticity of Work | Teacher-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 |
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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 prizes available. |
Provide School Details for Scholarships | Students on teams that win scholarship prizes 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. |