2009 American College Students' Mathematical Modeling Interdisciplinary Competition (ICM) Experience

Finally, It’s Over

The 4-day American University Student Mathematical Modeling Competition has finally come to an end. Participating in the mathematical modeling competition is a double challenge to one’s brainpower and physical strength, which I had already experienced when participating in the Electrical Engineering Cup with Kong Fangfang and Doria.

This time, I participated in the competition with Yuan Rongchang from the Science Experiment Class and Shi Bo from the Mathematics Department of the Academy of Sciences. We chose to participate in the ICM competition in the MCM/ICM competition, where ICM is a mathematical modeling of interdisciplinary subjects. The topic this time was to model the ecological environment of a coral reef area in Bolinao, Philippines, and we needed to use models to describe the adverse effects of Milkfish farming on local water quality and the resulting problems. We also needed to use our models to calculate and provide a method to improve the aquaculture industry in the area and estimate the expected returns.

Before the topic was announced, I had been guessing what kind of topic it would be and hoping that it wouldn’t be something like the economic crisis that includes the word “economics”. Fortunately, this time the topic of the ecosystem was very much to my liking, and when I read the topic, I really wanted to delve into it. My years of experience raising animals have also given me a basic understanding of water, biology, and ecological balance, and I have my own set of theories (although they may be wrong).

The First Day

On the first day, our work was mainly to understand the topic, find materials, and clarify our thinking. One of the more headache-inducing things was to pick out the useful parts from the complex and abundant materials. If it were Chinese materials, we, who have grown up in the information age and have been surfing the internet for many years, have already developed a set of reading habits that allow us to quickly scan through the materials (mainly because there’s too much nonsense on the internet). Unfortunately, most of the materials we found were rigorous English papers, which were not easy to scan through. In fact, the online Chinese materials were the most helpful to us on the first day. Our main difficulty was how to use the professional data indicators provided in the topic (such as the content of particulate organic carbon POC and dissolved organic carbon DOC in water) and establish a connection with the food chain balance model we built.

The Second Day

On the second day, we started modeling. We began to compare the various values in the topic and perform regression analysis. To find more data, we continued to read English papers. I found that the information provided in those English papers that had been giving me a headache was very important for our modeling, so I had to calm down and carefully read each paper. I would like to thank my Kingsoft PowerWord brothers for their help. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to finish reading those dozen or so papers. I have to say that learning English well is really important, as most of the useful and up-to-date information is in English. Every time I felt frustrated with those papers, I would think to myself, “I’m preparing for the GRE reading in advance,” and that would make me feel better. Yuan Rongchang said it well: whoever reads more papers will be one step closer to victory. I was particularly impressed by Yuan Rongchang’s ability to write formulas.

The Third Day

On the third day, we started frantically writing our paper. After analyzing and discussing, Yuan Rongchang would produce a large number of formulas every now and then, while Shi Bo was responsible for checking, and I helped with translating the Chinese parts. However, my grammar was not very good, and I encountered many problems during translation. I felt that writing an English paper was more like writing an argument in a debate rather than discussing an issue. By the early morning of the fourth day, the overall structure of our paper had finally taken shape. Yuan Rongchang and I finished writing the information paper required by the topic and the abstract of our paper at 4 am, of course, in Chinese.

The Fourth Day

On the fourth day, we translated, translated, and translated. Shi Bo and I frantically translated our paper, while Yuan Rongchang was fully engaged in calculations. Finally, in the afternoon, we completed most of the work. Later that evening, I discovered a Simile software that could simulate ecological chains. Although I found it a bit late, I still downloaded it and learned to use it. The graphical interface of Simile was easy to use, and I tried to use it to verify the first part of our model (the latter part was too difficult to verify, and the mathematical relationships were too complex). We made the final modifications to our model that evening and then spent the whole night writing and translating our paper. This was the first time I saw the sunrise during this winter vacation :) . We finally completed writing our paper at 7 am, converted it to PDF, sent it to the email, burned it to a CD, and completed our task.

I went to sleep at 8 am and didn’t wake up until 12 pm, when I had recovered a bit. We still had to print and mail our paper to the United States. We gathered again and rushed to the printing room in the bathroom. The 31-page printout felt heavy in our hands, and we felt a sense of accomplishment. Then we went to Tsinghua University, walked through half of the campus, and finally found the UPS Federal Express in a corner of the Zi Jing dormitory. After mailing our paper, we walked through half of the campus again, took a taxi back, and I realized that I hadn’t eaten all day. I quickly went to KFC to fill my stomach and then fell asleep as soon as I returned to my dorm. Our ICM competition had finally come to an end.

Final Summary

To be honest, compared to Yuan Rongchang and Shi Bo, my level is still far behind. If the HR of Microsoft (just imagining) asks me what I did in this competition, I can only honestly answer that I “helped find materials, translated papers, and verified formulas”. However, it’s comforting to know that I didn’t drag the team down, and I completed all my tasks. I didn’t take on things I couldn’t do, and I said “no” to things I couldn’t handle. After all, in this time-sensitive competition, the most important thing is not to take on things you can’t do. Yuan Rongchang was really strong, and every time he went back to his dorm to “meditate”, our mathematical model would always be upgraded by one version. The most terrifying thing was that after I slept for two hours, I logged in to the FTP and found that our paper had been upgraded by two versions, with countless new formulas…

Additional Thoughts

The last time I participated in a competition with Kong Fangfang and Doria, I thought of using the simulated annealing algorithm, but I didn’t understand it well at the time and didn’t pay attention to it later. This time, when preparing for the ICM, I had already downloaded the Java and C code for the simulated annealing algorithm and read it, but my level was limited, and I didn’t understand it. As it turned out, the best solution to the first question was to use the simulated annealing algorithm. Ah, why didn’t I spend more time understanding it earlier?!… It’s a pity… It seems that my computer programming level is still… Oh well, I won’t say anymore. After I finish the GRE and TOEFL, I will definitely continue to work on the ACM questions.

Final Words

I hope we can get a good award this time. Hehehe. Today, I rested for a day and recovered. Tomorrow, I will continue with the GRE… As Shi Bo said, the ICM may be painful, but it’s only four days short. The GRE is the most terrifying, and as the saying goes, “a short pain is better than a long one.” The machine test is approaching, and I don’t have much time left…