by Hannah Gruber ’10

Left to right: Nathan Youngblood, Mathias Gibbens, and Sarah Kaiser.

Four days. Teams of three. One of two problems: designing a traffic circle or finding a solution to the energy waste of cell phones.

Two Bethel teams placed in the second tier in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and International Mathematical Contest in Modeling (COMAP) for devising a successful traffic circle, meaning that there were nine teams that placed higher, 292 other teams that placed equivalently, and about 1300 teams that placed lower.

Seniors Jonathan Seaberg and Brandon Fosso, juniors Paul Greenlee, Mathias Gibbens, and Sarah Kaiser, and sophomore Nathan Youngblood made up the two Bethel teams. Nearly 1,700 teams—nearly 80 percent of which were international—participated in the competition, which students do on their own during a 96-hour window on a weekend. They aren’t allowed any outside help and don’t know what the problem is until they begin the competition

This year’s success in the COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling isn’t new to Bethel. Over the last few years Bethel students have excelled in the competition, and this year’s teams continued the tradition, said Nathan Gossett, assistant professor in the math and computer science department.

Left to right: Jonathan Seaberg, Paul Greenlee, and Brandon Fosso.

For the past two years Gossett has been advising students in this competition, and it was due to his encouragement that Greenlee decided to try the competition for the first time.

Kaiser and Seaberg had participated in past competitions. As a double major in mathematics and physics, Kaiser saw this as another opportunity to merge both her academic interests, as well as develop better teamwork skills.

“I think that experiences like this, especially the successful ones, are very helpful for the job search and grad school because you will always be working with groups and due dates. It’s a fact of life,” said Kaiser.

As both Bethel teams celebrate their successes, Bethel’s math, computer science, and physics departments are glad to see students gaining experience applying what they are learning to real-life situations.