A Brief Introduction
CUMCM means Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling (for participants from universities/colleges in China, the first "C" also means China). It is an annual contest for undergraduates all over the world, organized by CSIAM (China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics). It has been held annually since 1992. In recent years, more than 50000 teams (more than 160000 students) from over 1600 institutions participated in the contest.
In the contest, up to three students (they must be from the same institution, but it does not matter they are from majors in mathematics or from non-mathematical fields) advised by at most one teacher (optional) form a team. The team's task is to develop mathematical and/or computer models to solve a simplified real-word problem in engineering, management, etc. During the contest days, the students can use any references or materials they can find (including the materials on the INTERNET), but discussions with the advisor or out-of-team members are forbidden. The role of the contest is to improve students' understanding of mathematics, especially mathematical modeling and mathematical software, and to enhance students' motivation for studying mathematics and to cultivate students' creativity and overall ability.
The Awarding system of the contest
The teams are rewarded as first and second prizes with certifications issued by the organizer. All other teams that successfully participate the contest will get certifications of "Successful Participation". All the certifications will be in electronic version (PDF-format files) only, and will be emailed to you after the contest judging is completed.
PLEASE NOTE: Starting from 2019, the "University" level/type teams (i.e., 3-4 years university students) should choose any one from Problems A, B or C;
The "College" level/type teams (i.e., 2-3 years college students only) can choose any one from Problems A, B, C, D or E.
Contest Dates
The contest is organized every year. In each year (starting from 2019), the contest starts on 6:00 PM (Beijing Time) of a Thursday in early-middle September, and ends on 8:00 PM (Beijing Time) of the Sunday followed. There are totally about 72 hours for the contest time (i.e., the first two hours from 6:00PM to 8:00PM for downloading the contest problems are not included in the 72-hour contest time), and each team must upload the solution package through this site before the deadline.
The Registration Procedures
Teams from regions other than China Mainland, HK SAR and Macau SAR must register to the organizer through this website before the contest starts. For registration, each team must sign up an account in this website, and then provides registration information through "Membership". In the registration web page, please fill in your valid email address in the "Contact" Section, since this email address will be used to receive the electronic copy of your participation certificate after the contest. Please add in up to three members for your team (please also include yourself in the list), where all the members should be from the same institution.
For more information, please refer to the "Contest" menu for FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
NOTE: For participants from universities/colleges in China Mainland, HK SAR and Macau SAR, please visit The Chinese Version for more information (in Chinese, and only valid for students from universities/colleges in China Mainland and Macau SAR).
Inquiries
If you have any questions concerning the contest or registration process, please contact:
Huayu Lv
CSIAM Office, Dept. of Mathematical Sciences,
Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Email: LHY@csiam.org.cn
Tel: +86 10 6278 1785
Hope the information is useful to you and welcome the undergraduates all over the world to participate in CUMCM. Enjoy!
