On 26 September, Cadets Simone Askew (Co. C4), Samuel Crump (Co. F1), and Zachary Riggenbach (Co. F1), from the class of 2018, traveled with faculty advisor MAJ Matthew Mogensen to Shippensburg Pennsylvania to compete in the 7th Annual Cumberland Valley Math Modeling Challenge. Teams from six area universities in the Pennsylvania State university system other invited universities such as West Point competed over a 24-hour period to determine the best solution to the following problem: How to allocate current and future Syrian refugees among European countries in response to the ongoing crisis. Models were evaluated based on feasibility, acceptability by the host nations, and plausibility of the results.
The team from the Department of Mathematical Sciences swept first place in all categories. Not only did the judges deem the West Point team to be the Outstanding Winner (first place) for their written executive summary and model, they also received first place in the oral presentation category as determined by peer vote at the competition. Following their victory, Cadet Riggenbach shared that “the Cumberland Valley Math Modeling Challenge was a great opportunity to apply some of the concepts we have learned throughout our time here at West Point on an important, real world problem."