M3C 2nd place champions 2025!

The MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge is an internet-based math modelling competition designed for 16- to 18-year-olds, who are tasked with creating a mathematical representation of a real-world scenario to make a prediction or provide insight.

Our Sixth Form students took on the challenge and came out with a brilliant podium finish, earning second place in the Technical Computing Award. We are so incredibly proud of the boys for their persistence and ambition in taking on this prestigious competition.

Oliver (SFM3), captain of the Habs team, shares his experience of the competition:

Our M3 story begins in November 2023, when the brilliant Miss Harrison, Head of Maths, unearthed yet another prestigious competition for us to throw ourselves into: the MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge, note the American spelling. For this was a competition unlike any other, bearing the promise of an all expenses paid trip to New York and potentially thousands of dollars in prize money.

The catch? The competition, which involved designing maths models to analyse a contemporary issue in society, was 14 hours straight.

Undeterred, we – that is, Oliver (SFM3), Dawei (SFC1), Aryan (SFR2), and Rajarshi (SFJ3) and Devarshi (SFJ3)– formed a task force unlike any other and, one March weekend last year, sat down and locked in. After an intense and adrenalising day which pushed us to the very limits of our teamwork and problem-solving, we awaited the results: semi-finalists, 7th to 12th place, top two in the UK. The threshold for an all-expenses paid trip to New York? 6th.

And so, having pocketed a $1500 semi-finalist prize, we returned to our daily existences. We continued to hone our mathematical prowess, our coding expertise, our statistical sensibilities. Until 2025 rolled around, and it was time for take two.

This time, the problem concerned heatwaves and power outages, with a particularly challenging question three asking us to independently devise a ‘vulnerability score’ for various suburbs of Birmingham. With last years’ experience, we were faster, more refined, more agile. Approaches that last year went in the ‘if we had had more time’, this year went in the actual writeup. We had given it our all, one final time.

And it paid off. On the basis of our application of programming (‘technical computing’) to the problem, which was among the three best of any team, we had landed it: an all expenses paid trip to NYC, with our beloved Coach Harrison and the famously iconic Mr Broadwith along for the ride.

The five-day experience that followed will be remembered for the rest of our lives. Giddy with excitement and disbelief, we arrived Friday night to see just about everything there is in New York City over the weekend before Monday’s competition. In the interest of not flying out and heading back the day after, we were culturally enriched to a spectacular degree in the company of some of our best friends and the enthusiastic and unforgettable company of our brilliant teachers. From the nacho cheese to the Red 40, there could be no possible better group of people with whom to experience the Big Apple.

But let us not forget: this was, first and foremost, a work trip – a business holiday, perchance. And so, on Monday, having been prepped on how to bring out the full force of our Britishness by the great Mr B, we wandered down to Jane Street international HQ for a day of maths modelling to parallel our previous 14-hour adventures. Armed with Raj’s charisma and Dawei’s unassuming Desmos brilliance, along with good performances from the rest of us thanks to Coach Harrison and Mr B’s frenetic hand gestures, we completed the presentation and survived the notorious judges’ grilling.

And… results. We picked up 2nd place in our category, leaving us disappointed to finish top two in the UK once more – but all was remedied by the Outstanding Communication of Results award, conferred upon us with an additional $500 prize. If one fewer joke about the weather or Fahrenheit were to have been made, who knows whether we would have been lucky enough to achieve this distinction.

We flew back Tuesday morning with the experience of our lives behind our backs, and more struck than ever by the immediacy of our departure from Habs. The intensity of our gratitude to Miss Harrison and Mr Broadwith can scarcely be conveyed, along with the degree to which we will miss them. What better way could we possibly have ended our time at this school?