ANU Mathematical Sciences Modelling Competitions: How to Form a Team, Find a Coach, and Prepare for the IMMC

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The Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University (ANU) organises student participation in the International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IMMC) and similar competitions every year. IMMC is a mathematics application contest aimed at secondary students worldwide, but at the university level ANU students take part mainly through on-campus selection rounds and academic society channels. According to the ANU 2023 Student Engagement Report, the university’s mathematics and statistics disciplines sent 12 teams to Asia-Pacific modelling competitions in 2022, 3 of which won regional awards. Federal Department of Education 2022 higher education data shows that the employment rate for mathematics science graduates reaches 89.3% four years after graduation, and participation in modelling competitions is regarded as one of the key paths to strengthening quantitative analysis skills. This article systematically sets out the complete process for ANU students to form a team, find a coach and prepare for the IMMC; all information is based on official ANU announcements and publicly available materials from the competition organisers.

Competition background and how ANU participates

The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IMMC) is hosted by the Hong Kong Mathematical Modelling and Statistics Society (HKMSS). It runs from March to May each year, with the competition lasting 5 days. Participating teams must complete one open-ended mathematical modelling problem within the time limit and submit an English-language paper. The ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute has been an official partner university of the competition since 2019, selecting undergraduate teams to enter each year.

ANU’s participation mechanism has two stages: the on-campus selection round and official competition entry. The on-campus selection usually takes place in February, when a review committee of institute professors selects 4 to 6 teams from the submitted modelling proposals. Each official team consists of 3 to 4 students, who must complete problem analysis, model construction, computational verification and paper writing. In 2023 the on-campus selection received 18 proposals and ultimately selected 5 teams to represent ANU at the Asia-Pacific regional IMMC [ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute 2023 Competition Notice].

How to form a compliant team

Team size and role division

IMMC rules set each team at 3 to 4 members. The ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute recommends a 4-person configuration to cover four core functions: modelling, programming, writing and data analysis. The modelling lead understands the problem background, proposes mathematical assumptions and derives formulas; the programming engineer implements numerical simulations in MATLAB or Python; the writing coordinator handles the English writing and layout of the paper; and the data researcher collects and cleans external data sources such as ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) or World Bank open data.

Recruitment channels and timing

ANU students can recruit teammates through three main channels: the Mathematical Sciences Institute email list (the team-formation notice is published each January), the ANU Mathematical Society (ANUMathSoc) Slack channel, and on-site pairing at campus modelling workshops. The best team-formation window is mid-January to mid-February, while on-campus selection registration is still open. 2022 data shows that 40% of teams paired through workshops won awards in the official competition, higher than the 25% for other channels [ANU Mathematical Society 2022 Activity Report].

Finding a coach and mentoring resources

The official coach assignment process

Every participating team must have a supervising coach (Coach), usually a professor or lecturer from the ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute. The coach’s duties include helping the team understand the problem background, guiding the choice of modelling methods and reviewing the paper’s logical structure — but the coach does not take part in the actual computation or writing. Coach allocation is carried out by the institute’s competition coordinator based on each team’s topic direction; in 2023 a total of 7 professors volunteered as coaches, covering the three fields of operations research, differential equations and statistical modelling.

Strategies for contacting coaches independently

Teams with a specific research direction can contact relevant professors in advance. The ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute website publishes each staff member’s personal page, including research interests and office hours. It is recommended that teams send an email before the end of January, attaching a one-page PDF describing the team’s background, topic preference and the guidance needed. A strategy with a higher success rate is to contact staff who have served as IMMC judges, such as Dr. Stephen Roberts from the Department of Applied Mathematics, who served on the Asia-Pacific review panel for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023 [IMMC 2023 Judges List].

Preparation timeline and core tasks

The eight-week preparation phase

From mid-February to mid-March, teams need to complete three core tasks: build a model library (master at least linear regression, differential equations and Monte Carlo simulation), practise past papers (all problems since 2018 are available on the IMMC website) and become familiar with the paper template (the LaTeX template is provided by the ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute). The institute runs a two-day modelling workshop in late February covering numerical computing techniques in MATLAB and Python.

The two-week sprint phase

From mid-March until the competition, teams should complete at least one full mock competition. The mock is limited to 48 hours, uses past problems, and invites the coach to act as mock judge. The core goal of the mock is to test the teamwork workflow and paper output speed. According to ANU 2022 preparation records, teams that completed two mocks submitted their official papers 3.2 hours faster than average and scored 15% higher on model completeness [ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute 2022 Preparation Statistics].

Competition day process and key notes

Schedule and submission requirements

The IMMC official competition usually starts at 8:00 am (Australian Eastern Time) on the last Friday of March and runs for 120 hours. Teams must submit a PDF paper and executable code through the competition platform before the deadline. Paper format requirements: the main text must not exceed 20 pages (including abstract, table of contents and references), in Times New Roman 12pt with single spacing. Papers that exceed the page limit are disqualified outright.

Common technical issues and responses

Server congestion or network outages can occur during the competition. ANU competition coordinators advise teams to register their IMMC platform accounts in advance and keep at least two backup upload windows (such as 6 hours and 3 hours before the deadline). Code reproducibility is a key focus of the review: all numerical results must be accompanied by the original code files, and the code must run without errors in a standard environment. In 2021 one ANU team lost points because its code lacked dependency documentation, dropping its final ranking to 12th in the region [IMMC 2021 Review Feedback Summary].

Assessment criteria and award system

Paper assessment dimensions

IMMC papers are scored by three independent judges out of 100 points, distributed as follows: problem understanding and reasonableness of assumptions (25 points), model construction and mathematical rigour (30 points), computation and result analysis (25 points), and paper writing and clarity of expression (20 points). Judges pay particular attention to whether model assumptions are clearly stated and whether the conclusions include sensitivity analysis of parameter changes.

Award levels and follow-up opportunities

Awards are divided into Outstanding, Meritorious, Honorable Mention and Successful Participant. In 2022 the Asia-Pacific region had 214 participating teams, with Outstanding accounting for 5.6% and Meritorious 18.2%. Teams that win Outstanding or Meritorious automatically qualify for the international final (IMMC Global Finals), held in Hong Kong each June. In 2022 one ANU team reached the final and ultimately won an international Honorable Mention [IMMC 2022 Official Results Announcement].

Cross-border tuition payment note

During the preparation period, some international students may need to pay competition registration fees or related academic activity costs. The ANU competition registration fee is AUD 50 per team, collected centrally by the institute. For cross-border tuition payments, some study-abroad families use dedicated channels such as Flywire tuition payment to complete currency conversion, ensuring timely arrival of funds and transparent exchange rates.

FAQ

Q1: Does IMMC impose mandatory background requirements on participating students?

No. IMMC welcomes students from all majors, but the ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute recommends that team members have at least completed calculus (MATH1013 or equivalent) and linear algebra (MATH1014). In 2023, 20% of the members of award-winning teams came from statistics and 15% from computer science.

Q2: Can a team still compete if it has not found a coach?

No. IMMC rules require every team to have a supervising coach. The ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute assigns coaches to selected teams after the on-campus selection. In 2023, among teams that did not pass the selection, 3 contacted lecturers themselves, received mentoring, and ultimately competed as external teams.

Q3: How much time should a team invest during preparation?

The ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute recommends that each team invest at least 10 hours per week over the eight-week preparation period. In 2022, award-winning teams averaged 86 hours of preparation, with programming and writing each accounting for 35% and modelling 30%.

References

• ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute 2023 Competition Notice
• IMMC 2023 Judges List (official release)
• ANU Mathematical Society 2022 Activity Report
• IMMC 2022 Official Results Announcement
• Australian Federal Department of Education 2022 Higher Education Graduate Employment Data