SCUDEM IV at JMU

JMU hosts a differential equation modeling challenge

News
 
image2.jpg

SUMMARY: On Saturday, 9 November 2019, JMU was one of 73 host sites for SCUDEM IV, an international differential equations based modeling competition. Three local teams, two from Virginia Military Institute and one from JMU, met in Roop Hall on the JMU campus to share what they had learned while developing a model of a real world scenario. In addition to student presentations, there were workshops and a fun math trivia game.


On Challenge Saturday, 9 November 2019, over 600 students brought their own mathematical  descriptions of real situations to share with fellow students and faculty to over 70 local site host schools in the United States and beyond (e.g., Cameroon, India, Czech Republic, Nigeria). This year’s three challenge scenarios involved chemical signals from wasps and butterflies; the phenomenon of the hipster effect and group dynamics; and landing a spacecraft in a microgravity environment. Teams of up to three students each worked for over a week on their choice of one of these real world challenges. 

image1.jpg

Two teams from Virginia Military Institute and one from James Madison University met for the full day Challenge event on November 9 on the JMU campus. Students attacked their problem using the power and elegance of mathematics and shared their discoveries with others during their group presentations on Challenge Saturday. There were also faculty development programs and the MathBowl, a fun math-based trivia game. 

image3.jpg

SCUDEM IV 2019 (SIMIODE Challenge Using Differential Equations) is a fun community event for high school and undergraduate students.  SCUDEM is sponsored by SIMIODE -- Systemic Initiative for Modeling investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations --  a 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization, which is funded in part by the National Science Foundation in the United States. Anyone interested in modeling with mathematics, specifically with the STEM pivotal material known as differential equations, can join SIMIODE free at www.simiode.org.

SCUDEM 2020 will take place on 14 November 2020. For information contact

Director@simiode.org, or one of the local organizers: thelwerj@jmu.edu or sochacki@jmu.edu.

 

Back to Top

Published: Sunday, December 1, 2019

Last Updated: Thursday, November 2, 2023

Related Articles