High Technology Students Advance To Finals In Math Competition

MANALAPAN, NJ — A group of High Technology High School students gathered to compete in an international online math competition over the course of a weekend in late February.

Kevin Guan of Manalapan, David Chang, Andrew Eng, Alexander Postovskiy of Marlboro, and Ivan Wong of Morganville from High Technology High School advanced to one of the top six spots in the MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge.

This year's competition drew over 2,700 11th and 12th graders in the United States and sixth form students in the United Kingdom.

The team has also been named a finalist for the Technical Computing Scholarship Award, which recognizes exceptional use of code to support their solution. The team's work was reviewed by judges in the first two rounds of evaluation.

Chang found the M3 Challenge to be inspiring. "Through learning to analyze a problem, develop models with technical computing, and communicate results effectively, we gained valuable insight into using mathematics as a powerful interdisciplinary tool. Ultimately, it inspired us to continue investigating current issues both now and into the future."

Using mathematical modeling, students had to come up with a solution to a real-world question: will the shift to remote work last, and to what extent?

The M3 Challenge problem required teams to develop a model that predicts what percentage of workers' jobs are remote-ready and whether an individual worker whose job is remote-ready will be permitted and will choose to work from home.

"This year's topic touches on several relevant issues we are facing as a global community," says M3 Challenge judge and lead problem developer Karen Bliss. "There are many facets to consider, not least of which is the current labor shortage in many fields. It is very exciting to see how teams think about remote work and whether they predict that it is here to stay."

The team faces one final hurdle on April 25 when they present their findings to a panel of professional mathematicians for final validation.

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