International Mathematical Modeling Challenge

The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IMMC or sometimes IMC) is an international mathematical modeling competition for high school students in team mathematical modeling co-sponsored by COMAP and the NeoUnion ESC Organization. Teams are selected on a country-by-country basis, with each country sending its top two teams to the competition. The IMMC was inspired by the HiMCM, a similar contest sponsored by COMAP but mainly attracting teams within the United States. The HiMCM in turn was established in the 1990s to create a high school counterpart to COMAP’s MCM. Contestants in the IMMC are given five days to research (the contest permits the use of any inanimate source) and write a mathematical paper detailing their mathematical model for a given situation. At the conclusion of the five-day period, papers are sent to an international expert committee composed of mathematics faculty from the world’s leading universities. Traditionally, 2-4 teams are awarded the top designation of Outstanding and invited to an awards ceremony, held in a different country or region each year.
Each participating country is expected to choose its two best teams of one to four contestants each to compete in the IMMC. Globally, different methods have been used to select teams from their respective countries.
Hong Kong holds the contest early and allows any interested team to participate. A national judging panel selects the two best papers to move on to the international round of the competition. In 2015, 60 papers came out of the Greater China region alone.
In 2015, the United States used a different qualification process, inviting the top two teams from the 2014 HiMCM to compete in the IMMC. In 2016, the United States adopted a hybrid of Hong Kong’s approach and its own former approach: any team receiving a score of Meritorious or higher in the 2015 HiMCM (roughly 25% of competing teams) was invited to compete in the 2016 IMMC. As in Hong Kong, the United States held the IMMC early, completed a national round of judging, and selected the two best papers to move on to the international round.
Most countries use a selection process similar to that used by Hong Kong, and countries entering the IMMC for the first time will also likely adopt a similar process.
Papers passing the national selection round move on to the international expert judging panel. In 2015, the Expert Panel included:
17 teams from the following countries competed in the 2015 IMMC:
Of these teams, four were awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony in Hong Kong:
Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA, USA
The Affiliated High School of Peking University, Beijing, China
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), Singapore
Shanghai Nanyang Model School, Shanghai, China
Seven were awarded the Meritorious designation:
Four were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:
Two were awarded the Successful Participant designation:
40 teams from the following 23 countries or regions competed in the 2016 IMMC:
Of these teams, three were awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony at the International Congress on Mathematics Education in Hamburg, Germany:
Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Diocesan Girls' School, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR)
Pui Ching Middle School, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR)
Fourteen were awarded the Meritorious designation:
Nine were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:
Fourteen were awarded the Successful Participant designation:
49 teams from the following 27 countries/regions competed in the 2017 IMMC:
Of these teams, one was awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the awards ceremony at the Harvard University, Cambridge MA., USA along with three randomly selected Meritorious teams from Argentina, South Korea and Russia.
NC School of Science and Mathematics, NC, USA
Seven were awarded the Meritorious designation:
Twenty-seven were awarded the Honorable Mention designation:
Fourteen were awarded the Successful Participant designation:
68 teams from the following 36 countries/regions competed in the 2024 IMMC:
Of these teams, two were awarded the top designation of International Outstanding and invited to the award ceremony at The Education University of Hong Kong (EduHK), Hong kong SAR, China, along with three randomly selected Meritorious teams from Australis (2), and Macau (SAR).
Two teams were awarded the International Outstanding designation:
Pui Kiu College, Hong Kong (SAR) (Advisor: CHIU Chun Yin Eric)
Shenzhen Middle School, China Mainland (Advisor: Feng Liu)
Six teams were awarded the International Meritorious designation:
NBSC Manly Campus, Australia (Advisor: Noroja Rouzbehi)
Brisbane Boys' College, Australia (Advisor: Heather Meinecke)
SHENG KUNG HUI CHOI KOU SCHOOL, Macau (SAR) (Advisor: WONG CHON LONG)
Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore (Advisor: Leow Suhui)
Kamnoetvidya Science Academy, Thailand (Advisor: Guntaphon Tassanasophon)
Wesley Girls High School, Taiwan (Advisor: Mei Chu, Hung)
Thirty-six teams were awarded the International Honorable Mention designation:
Twenty-four teams were awarded the International Successful Participant designation:
The 2015 IMMC winning teams from the USA, Singapore, and China were brought to Hong Kong for the IMMC Award Presentation Ceremony on 5 July 2015 at Hong Kong University, sponsored by Guangdong Qtone Education Co., Knowledge Magazine, Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, Competition on System Modeling & Optimization (COSMO), CUHK, HKACE, and the Hong Kong Entrepreneurs and Executives Club.
Special guests included Hong Kong political leader the Honorable Mrs. Fanny Law and movie directors Mr Tsui Siu-Ming and Mr Tang Yat-Ming. Professor Frederick Leung, Chairman of the Board of Faculty, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, gave the opening speech. Law encouraged educators in Hong Kong and elsewhere to continue to pursue the type of educational innovation promoted by the IMMC. Given that the 2015 problem revolved around mathematically modeling a movie filming production schedule, directors Tsui and Tang discussed their own experiences in the movie industry and how applicable teams’ models were to real-world movie filming decisionmaking.
The 2016 IMMC winning teams from the USA and Hong Kong, in addition to the Meritorious German team, were brought to Hamburg, Germany for the IMMC Award Ceremony on 26 July 2016 at the University of Hamburg as part of the quadrennial International Congress on Mathematical Education. Dr. Sol Garfunkel described how the contest has evolved and discussed plans for the future.
On August 7, 2017, with the efforts by COMAP and NeoUnion ESC Organization an award ceremony was held at Harvard University, Cambridge MA., USA. The Outstanding team from the USA and three randomly chosen Meritorious teams from Argentina, South Korea and Russia were invited to attend.
2020 This year due to the closing of venues caused by Covid-19 there will be no formal IMMC awards ceremony. Rather IMMC will make resources available to schools and countries/regions of the Outstanding teams to allow them to fund local ceremonies which they can schedule as their situations permit. It is our hope to hold the 2021 award ceremonies at the new dates for ICME in Shanghai.
2021 This year due to the continued effects of Covid-19 there will be no formal in person IMMC awards ceremony. Rather IMMC will make resources available to schools and countries/regions of the top teams to allow them to fund local ceremonies which they can schedule as their situations permit. However, ICME Shanghai, China was held as a hybrid event where teams will be acknowledged virtually and videos from the winning teams were featured on the afternoon of July 15, 2021.
2022 This year due to the closing of venues caused by Covid-19 there will be no formal IMMC awards ceremony. Rather IMMC will make resources available to schools and countries/regions of the Outstanding teams to allow them to fund local ceremonies which they can schedule as their situations permit.
2023 There will be no formal IMMC award ceremony this year again. Rather IMMC will make resources available to schools and countries/regions of the Outstanding teams to allow them to fund local ceremonies which they can schedule as their situations permit.
2024 IMMC organized an IMMC Summit and The 2024 IMMC Awards Ceremony, August 3-7, 2024 at The Education University of Hong Kong (EduHK) in Hong Kong (SAR) China with EdUHK's financial support as co-organizer. The two Outstanding teams from Hong kong (SAR) and China mainland were invited, along with three randomly selected Meritorious teams from Australis (2), and Macau (SAR).
The IMMC has received broad press coverage throughout the world, with the majority of coverage concentrated in the U.S. and Greater China. The IMMC has been featured by:
China News Review (CRNTT) Commercial Radio Hong Kong (人民大道中) DBC Radio Hong Kong Commercial Daily Hong Kong Economic Journal KRON 4 Television KTSF Television Metro Daily Ming Pao On.CC Oriental Daily News Palo Alto Daily Post Palo Alto Weekly San Jose Mercury News Shumo Sing Tao Daily Sky Post Ta Kung Pao The Sun Wen Wei Po Wo Ke Ji
The IMMC is overseen by an international Organizing Committee of the following people:
Advisory/Academic Committee for IMMC in Greater China:
Expert Panel for IMMC in Greater China:
The 2017 IMMC contest period will end on May 8, 2017 (national rounds within certain countries will end earlier). Results will be announced in June, and teams awarded the Outstanding designation will be honored.