2 YSU math teams win awards at contest

Staff report

youngstown

Two teams of Youngstown State University undergraduate students won meritorious awards in this year’s Mathematical Contest in Modeling, placing the teams in the top 11 percent of the more than 6,500 who competed worldwide.

Sarah Ritchey of Sharon, Pa., Tim Shaffer of Sharpsville, Pa., and Eric Shehadi of McDonald, who worked on Problem A and were advised by George Yates, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, received a Meritorious distinction for their submission titled “Life in the Fast Lane.”

This year, teams could choose from two problems: Problem A — “The Keep-Right-Except-To-Pass-Rule; build and analyze a mathematical model to analyze the performance of this rule in traffic,” and Problem B — “College Coaching Legends; build a mathematical model to choose the best college coach or coaches.”

Cassandra Shaffer of Sharpsville, Jenna Wise of Hubbard and Emily Hoopes of Champion, who also worked on Problem A and were advised by Padraic Taylor, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, received the distinction of Meritorious for their submission titled “Making the Grade: Best Coaches of All Time.”

Shawn Doyle of Bessemer, Pa., Camron Bagheri of Youngstown and Michael Baker of Bristolville, who worked on problem A and were advised by Yates, received the distinction of Successful Participant for their submission titled “Perpetual Slow Motion or: How I Learned to Stop Merging and Love the Left Lane.”

Each year, the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications conducts the Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

Teams have 96 hours to develop a model of the problem, create a solution and submit a written report for judging.