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Students represent UWG in int'l contest
April 7, 2003
CARROLLTON, GA - Brian Bockelman of Snellville, Clay Culver of Villa Rica, and Dmitriy Plaks of Powder Springs represented the University of West Georgia at the 19th annual international Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
Bockelman, Culver and Plaks’ group received Meritorious Winner ranking among other institutions such as Duke University, Boston University, University of Colorado at Boulder or University of Arizona.
The International Mathematical Contest in Modeling is sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve mathematics education for students of all ages.
The students were given four days to submit an optimal solution for one of three open-ended modeling problems. The UWG team chose the problem that asked them to determine the size, location, and number of cardboard boxes needed to cushion a stunt person’s fall using different combined weights (stuntperson & motorcycle) and different jump heights.
Bockelman, an Advanced Academy student, will graduate from West Georgia before he reaches age 19. He spent last summer with other undergraduate research-oriented mathematics students at the University of Nebraska. He presented his research to the annual joint meetings of the American Mathematics Society and the Mathematical Association of America. Bockelman will spend this summer doing research in the Mathematics Department at Cornell University.
Culver is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science and Discrete Mathematics. He is a member of the Chess Club and the National Mathematical Honors Society. He works on the Linux operating system in his spare time, where he contributes code to a sizable cryptography library. He hopes to start math research in the fall.
Plaks is originally from Russia. He is majoring in physics and planning to transfer to Georgia Tech in a few years to major in aerospace engineering. He is currently working on a research project in rocket propulsion with Dr. Javier Hasburn, professor of physics. He is involved with the Phi Mu Alpha fraternity and the Physics and Engineering Club.
For more information, contact Dr. Scott Gordon, associate professor of mathematics, at 770-836-4354.
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