M3 Challenge Archives

Substances such as tobacco, alcohol, and narcotics can affect the physical and mental health of users. The consequences of substance abuse, both financial (health care, the criminal justice system, workplace productivity, etc) and non-financial (divorce, domestic abuse, etc), ripple through society and affect more than just the user.

This problem asked participants to quantify the costs and benefits of repurposing squandered food, and to recommend strategies for communities to adopt.

This problem focused on national parks and climate-related issues.

This problem required teams to use mathematical models to categorize car usage habits of U.S. drivers and evaluate car-sharing business options to suggest an option that would garner the most participation in a given city. Finally, teams were asked to consider emerging technologies like self-driving cars and alternative energy.

This problem required teams to create mathematical models to quantify and consider the total costs, expected earnings, and lifestyle factors resulting from a college education, comparing the earning potential of various career paths.

This problem asks teams to determine a student’s caloric requirements based on his or her individual attributes, assess the percentage of U.S. students who meet the definition of an “average” student, and develop a budget-friendly lunch plan to satisfy nutritional standards and students’ palates.  

This problem asked teams to come up with a way to quantify the plastic waste filling our nation’s landfills, and to suggest the best recycling methods for U.S. cities to implement, based on modeling relevant variables. They were then to use that model as a basis for recommending nationwide recycling standards.