TJ Students Tackle Housing Affordability As International Math Competition Finalist

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology students are proving again why their high school is often ranked as one of the top in the nation.

A team of TJ students was named one of nine finalists in the MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge, a prestigious international competition. Nearly 3,000 juniors and seniors on 643 teams in the U.S. and U.K. participated in the competition in two rounds of assessment by judges so far.

On April 29, the finalist teams will present their findings to a panel of professional mathematicians. Finalists could win top six awards ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 after final judging.

TJ's team is made up of Rishabh Chhabra, Om Gole, Rishabh Prabhu, Laura Zhang and Victoria Zhang.

"M3 Challenge has really pushed our team to dive deeper into math and has inspired a couple of our team members to pursue careers related to mathematical modeling," said TJ mathematics teacher and team coach Sewon Yang. "The team has been working very hard at our school's math modeling club to raise awareness of the beautiful and powerful applications of math among the bright and eager Thomas Jefferson students."

In addition to TJ's team, the other finalist teams are from Andover, Massachusetts; Basking Ridge, New Jersey; Elmhurst, Illinois; Gainesville, Florida; Livingston, New Jersey; Minneapolis, Minnesota; San Diego, California; and Watford, Hertfordshire.

The M3 Challenge, held by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and sponsored by MathWorks, involves participants using mathematical modeling to solve a real-world problem. This year's challenge had participants work to solve the crises of homelessness and affordable housing shortage. If participants could find a way to predict long-term housing supply and homelessness trends was possible, participants were asked how it could be used to find solutions to homelessness.

TJ's submission, presented online over 14 hours in early March, was chosen as one of the top in the international competition. About 45 percent of participating teams used technical computing for their solutions, which could make them eligible for additional scholarship prizes.

The competition encourages students to pursue careers in applied math, computational and data sciences, and technical computing. TJ team member Rishabh Prabhu learned he had a passion for mathematrical modeling through the competition.

"I realized that I not only enjoy mathematical modeling, but I have also gained confidence in myself to excel in this field," said Prabhu. "My experiences with M3 Challenge have shaped my career aspirations and inspired me to pursue a career in quantitative finance, where I’ll continue to leverage the power and beauty of mathematics and computer science."