Durham Students Advance to Finals in Prestigious Math Competition

For 14 straight hours in early March, a small group of North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics students came together to participate in an international online math competition. A combination of math smarts and creative thinking has added up to a spot in the finals for the team, whose submission was selected as one of the best solutions to the escalating crises of extreme heat and power grid failures, which local and national governments are working to mitigate.

The students – Steven Gu, Grace Luo, Brandon Willoughby, Brandon Yang, and Jessica Yang of Durham-based North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics – make up one of the nine finalist teams in MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge (M3 Challenge), a unique competition that drew more than 3,600 11th and 12th graders in the U.S. and sixth form students in the U.K. this year. The team, whose work underwent intense scrutiny by judges in the first two rounds of assessment, has one last hurdle when they head to New York City on April 28 to present their findings to a panel of professional mathematicians for final validation.

Using mathematical modeling, students had to come up with solutions to real-world questions: How can we predict the indoor temperature of non-air-conditioned urban dwellings during a heat wave? How much demand should a power grid be prepared to handle during the summer months? Will this demand change over time? Can cities minimize the effects of a heat wave or a power grid failure?

Now in its 20th year, M3 Challenge is a program of Philadelphia-based Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and is sponsored by MathWorks. It spotlights applied mathematics as a powerful problem-solving tool and motivates students to consider further education and careers in applied math, computational and data sciences, and technical computing. Winning teams will be awarded a share of $100,000 in scholarships, with the champion team receiving $20,000.

A total of 794 teams submitted papers detailing their recommendations. Roughly 55% of those submissions included technical computing to support and enhance their solutions, and those coding skills make them eligible for additional scholarship prizes.

“Heat waves are not just uncomfortable, they can be quite dangerous,” said Dr. Karen Bliss, Senior Manager of Education and Outreach at SIAM. “In many locations, air conditioning is not a luxury, but a necessity, since heat stress can exacerbate underlying illnesses in vulnerable populations.”

“Unfortunately, mass use of air conditioning puts a strain on the electrical grid and resulting power outages can be devastating,” Bliss explained. “Cities and rural areas alike will benefit from having plans in place for managing energy demands and caring for citizens who need support during heat waves.”

The team’s coach, mathematics teacher Michael Lavigne, explained that “it is a rare opportunity for students to interface with such meaningful problems with real stakes. M3 Challenge gives students the opportunity to bring to bear their skills—technical, theoretical, collaborative, communicative—and see how they can make a tangible impact. In my work as an educator, I am always surprised at the growth that my students undergo when I simply get out of the way. M3 Challenge is a significant capstone experience for our students as they realize their power to affect change in the world.”

Team member Grace Luo said that participating in this year’s M3 Challenge was a surprising, yet valuable, opportunity for her team to push their limits and strengthen their collaboration. “We never truly realized how much we could accomplish in 14 hours until we competed in M3 Challenge. It was a great bonding experience as we divided and conquered, each becoming experts in different aspects of the problem before joining back together to articulate a solution!”

In addition to North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, the other finalist teams hail from schools in Houston, Texas; Mason, Ohio; Oakton, Virginia; Rye, New York; Winter Park, Florida; Zionsville, Indiana; and Winchester, Hampshire and Borehamwood, Hertfordshire in the U.K.

For more information about M3 Challenge, visit https://m3challenge.siam.org/the-challenge/.

To access this year’s challenge problem, visit https://m3challenge.siam.org/2025-problem/.

To see the full list of finalist, semi-finalist, and honorable mention teams, visit https://m3challenge.siam.org/wp-content/uploads/M3_Winners_2025_pre_final_event.pdf.