Three of our undergraduate students won “Finalist Winner” in the COMAP competition this spring. Their team is composed of David Betz, Antonio Mora and Zachary Smith. This puts them in the top 3% out of 9562 teams who participated in the interdisciplinary contest in modeling. “The designation Finalist recognizes teams whose solution reports are exemplary and therefore reached the final round of judging. These papers present complete and logical analysis in an organized and clear presentation above and beyond simply addressing the requirements. These papers are easy to read, easy to follow, logical, and comprehensive. Finalist papers are among the best of all team submissions.”
Professor John Holmes said, “It is very rare for a team to win finalist, and this was my first time to coach a team who has had this level of success”. The team was coached by the SIAM student chapter; Professor Keyfitz, graduate students Kriti Sehgal, Katelynn Huneycutt, Daniel Packer, and Professor Holmes. A summary of the problem follows: Problem E investigates the effects of light pollution on both people and the environment. Participants need to propose effective ways to mitigate the negative effects of light pollution in environments such as protected land locations as well as rural, suburban, and urban communities.
Teams need to consider different intervention strategies based on the location while considering both the economic and ecological impacts of reducing light pollution. Click for a direct link to the Problem and Solution by the winning team.
