On September 29-30, a team consisting of Erica Hernandez, Ryan Manheimer and Michael McLoughlin represented the TCNJ Mathematics and Statistics Department at the 4th Annual Cumberland Valley Math Modeling Challenge in Shippensburg, PA. This regional competition gives undergraduate mathematics students a chance to test their skills on real-world problems. The TCNJ team chose to work on a problem regarding the Electoral College. They had a total of 24 hours, the first 23 of which were used to develop and test a model, and write a one-page summary of their findings. During the final hour they were to finalize their findings and into a 10-minute presentation explaining their results, which they then presented to other student participants.
Of the 5 groups who tackled this problem, the TCNJ team was ranked as the best paper. Although they did not win the competition, which was decided by the group with the best presentation of the 16 groups competing, we are all very proud of them. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Jana Gevertz, who acted as student advisor for the team.