A Brief Introduction

China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling (CUMCM) is a national annual contest in China for undergraduates. It's also the most widespread out-of-class scientific activities for undergraduates in China universities. In 2004 there are 6881 teams from 724 institutions in China (including Hong Kong SAR) participated the contest, and in 2005 there are 8492 teams from 795 institutions in China participated the contest.

In the contest, three students (it doesn't matter they are from majors in mathematics or from non-mathematical fields) advised by at most one teacher form a team. The team's task is to develop in three days mathematical or computer models to solve a simplified real-word problem in engineering, management, etc. During the contest days, the students can use any references or materials they can find (including the materials on the INTERNET), but discussions with the advisor or out-of-team members are forbidden. The role of the contest is to improve students' understanding of mathematics, especially mathematical modeling and mathematical experiments, and to enhance students' motivation for studying mathematics and to cultivate students' creativity and overall ability.
 

The Organizing System of CUMCM
:
1) This national-wide contest is organized by the National Orgnizing Committe (NOC) of CUMCM, which is an organization setup by the Ministry of Education of P.R.C. and CSIAM (China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics).

2) In most of the provinces or regions in China, there is a Local Orgnizing Committee (LOC) of CUMCM in each province or region. Currently, there are 27 provinces (regions) with LOCs. In addition to these, there is a United LOC for the provinces (regions) without a LOC for herself. The teams from outside China should register to the United LOC (the office of the United LOC is the same as the NOC). Therefore, currently there are totally 28 LOCs, which can be considered as the sub-divisions of the NOC.

The Judging System of CUMCM
1) Each year, the LOCs will evaluate the answer papers and rank the teams from their own local regions. Only the best 12-14% papers
can be submitted to the NOC for re-evaluation. The others will also be ranked and might be rewarded as local-level prizes. The
local-level prizes are classified into the 1st prize, the 2nd prize and successful participants. No any more prizes in the local-level prizes.

2) The NOC will re-evaluate the answer papers and re-rank the teams for the best 12-14% papers submitted from the local regions. Then
the teams are  rewarded as national-level prizes. The national-level prizes are classified into the 1st prize and the 2nd prize. No any more prizes in the national-level prizes. So you can see that the national-level prizes are much more competitive.

3) These prizes are further classified as four-year university level (Contest Problems A & B) and two-year College level (Contest Problems C & D).

In 2004, there are totally 6881 teams from 724 universities (or colleges) paiticipated in the contest. Finally, 228 teams are rewarded as the (national-level) first prizes, and 541 teams are rewarded as the (national-level) second prizes. The 28 LOCs also reward about one-third of the participants as local-level prize winners. The others are successful participants.

CUMCM  Contest  Dates

The Registration Procedures for CUMCM

For further information on registering to the contest, please contact:

 Prof. Jinxing Xie, Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
 Email: jxie@math.tsinghua.edu.cn

Hope the information is useful to you and welcome the undergraduates all over the world to join CUMCM.

Last Updated: 12 March 2005 by Jinxing Xie

Please send your comments to jxie@math.tsinghua.edu.cn

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