Three University of Macau (UM) students recently won the second prize at the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) 2015 held in the United States. An annual international event, the MCM is the most influential and the oldest maths competition in modelling in the world.
In the competition, the UM team was presented with the problem of how to effectively prevent the spread of the Ebola virus. With the help of non-linear programming techniques, the team proposed a practical solution to the problem. The solution was implemented in two stages, by using two models, an epidemic model and a delivery model. The first model is used to predict the size of the infected population, and the second model uses the result from the first model to develop the most cost-effective plan for drug delivery. The mathematical results are realised using a software tool, Lingo
The MCM places a great emphasis on research, originality, teamwork, communication, and justification of results. Each team is required to submit their solution in the form of a research paper within 96 hours.
The three winning students are Huang Yucheng from the Department of Finance and Business Economics, Faculty of Business Administration; Xu Chengshuo from the Department of Computer and Information Science, Faculty of Science and Technology (FST); and Yu Zhiyuan from the Department of Mathematics, FST. The team was led by Dr Liu Zhi, assistant professor from the Department of Mathematics.
Source: Faculty of Science and Technology
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