The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics selected students from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Harvard University as winners of the 2006 SIAM Award in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). The students were rewarded at the SIAM annual meeting held in Boston from July 10–14, 2006. Established in 1988, the prize is awarded to two of the teams judged "Outstanding" in the annual MCM. One winning team of students is chosen for each of the problems posed in the MCM.
The 2006 winners of Problem A, The Continuous Problem: "Positioning and Moving Sprinkler Systems for Irrigation" represent the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The students are Brian Camley, Pascal Getreuer, Bradley Klingenberg and their faculty advisor Professor Bengt Fornberg. Their solution was titled "Sprinkle, Sprinkle, Little Yard."
The 2006 winners of Problem B, The Discrete Problem: "Wheelchair Access at Airports" represent the Department of Mathematics at Harvard University. The students are Benjamin Conlee, Neal Gupta, Christopher Yetter and their faculty advisor Professor Clifford H. Taubes. Their solution was titled "Profit-Maximizing Allocation of Wheelchairs in a Multi-Concourse Airport."
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) was founded in 1952 to support and encourage the important industrial role that applied mathematics and computational science play in advancing science and technology. Along with publishing top-rated journals, books, and SIAM News, SIAM holds about 12 conferences per year. There are also currently 45 SIAM Student Chapters and 15 SIAM Activity Groups.
SIAM's 2006 Annual Meeting themes included dynamical systems, industrial problems, mathematical biology, numerical analysis, orthogonal polynomials and partial differential equations.
For complete details, go to http://www.siam.org/meetings/an06/index.php .