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MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge

MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge (M3 Challenge)

Fourteen hours, one open-ended real-world problem, and a written mathematical model. Free, with six figures in scholarships.

Run by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Official website How to prepare Reviews and tips

Key facts

Eligible grades
Grades 11 and 12 in the United States, including US territories and DoDEA schools, and sixth form students in England and Wales.
Homeschool and cyberschool students in those areas are eligible, either by forming their own team with affidavit forms or by joining a local school's team. Immediate family of SIAM or MathWorks Challenge staff are ineligible.
Source, checked 2026-09-02
Eligible ages
No one under the age of 13 may participate.
Sixth form in England and Wales is described by SIAM as ages 16 to 19. Otherwise eligibility is by grade.
Source, checked 2026-09-02
Individual or team
Team · Teams of three to five students with one coach.
Where it runs
Online · United States, England and Wales
Entry cost
FreeSIAM states there are no registration or participation fees.
Registration deadline
Set locally, not published as a single national date The 2027 registration deadline is not published. The 2026 deadline was 20 February 2026 at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Competition dates
2027 dates not yet published; SIAM's site states registration is closed for 2026. For reference, the 2026 Challenge weekend ran from 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday 27 February 2026 to Monday 2 March 2026, with a final login and upload deadline of 3 March 2026 at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Difficulty
CompetitiveSerious preparation over a season. Advancing past the first round separates prepared students from unprepared ones.
Prizes
Scholarship awards totalling more than $100,000 each year, shared equally among team members and paid to the college attended. Finalists go to New York City to present with expenses paid.Scholarships awarded to teams across several placement bands, split among team members, plus technical computing awards. Confirm current amounts on the official site.

What MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge is

The M3 Challenge gives teams a single open-ended real-world problem, released on a weekend, and fourteen consecutive hours to build a mathematical model and write it up as a formal solution paper. There is no single right answer: judging rewards the modelling assumptions, the mathematics, the analysis of the model's limits, and the quality of the writing. It is free and awards a large scholarship pool.

How the competition works

Entirely internet-based. Teams download the problem at any time during Challenge weekend and have 14 continuous hours, working in Eastern Time; the clock cannot be paused, so download with at least 14 hours left before the weekend's firm end. Teams may work from any location. The coach need not be present and team members may not discuss the problem with anyone but teammates. Papers submitted late but within 24 hours are judged and receive feedback but are not eligible for prizes. A separate MATLAB Technical Computing Award is available.

Eligibility notes

Open to students in the United States and, in recent years, the United Kingdom. Teams need a teacher coach.

Is MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge right for you?

Experience needed
Comfortable algebra and some statistics. Calculus helps but is not required. Programming is useful but not mandatory.
Time commitment
One intense weekend, plus a few practice runs beforehand.
What you actually do
You open a problem about something real, such as housing supply or electric vehicle adoption, and have fourteen hours to define it, model it, test the model, and write twenty pages explaining it.

A good fit if

  • You like open-ended problems with no clean answer
  • Your team includes a strong writer as well as strong mathematicians
  • You want a serious scholarship competition that costs nothing

Probably not for you if

  • Students who want a problem with one correct answer
  • Teams that cannot commit a full consecutive day

Compare this against competitions matched to you

Common mistakes

  • Modelling first and writing last. Papers that ran out of writing time score badly no matter how good the mathematics.
  • Failing to state assumptions explicitly. Judges score the assumptions as heavily as the model.
  • Not doing a practice run. Fourteen hours disappears faster than any team expects.

How to register

  1. A teacher registers the team on m3challenge.siam.org before the winter deadline.
  2. Work through past problems and past winning papers, all published free, before the challenge weekend.
  3. On the weekend, pick your fourteen-hour window and download the problem when you start.
  4. Submit the solution paper before your window closes. There are no extensions.

Register on the official site

What skills you need

  • Mathematical modelling
  • Assumption-making and justification
  • Data analysis
  • Technical writing under extreme time pressure
  • Team division of labour

How to prepare

Judges score the modelling process, not the answer. That means stating assumptions, justifying them, building something tractable, testing sensitivity, and explaining the limitations honestly. Every past problem and every winning paper is published free, and reading three winning papers teaches more than any textbook.

What to study

Model building
Turning a vague question into variables and relationships. Start simple and add complexity only if time allows.
Assumptions
State each one and justify it. This is explicitly scored and it is where weak papers are exposed.
Sensitivity analysis
How does the answer change if a key assumption is wrong? Papers that skip this cap out at the middle of the field.
Data handling
You will be given or must find real data. Cleaning and citing it properly matters.
Technical writing
Executive summary, clear structure, labelled figures. One team member should own writing from hour one.

Full preparation guide, including a week-by-week plan

Recommended resources

Past problems and materials

Only materials the organiser or an authorised archive publishes openly are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to be exceptional at maths?

Less than you would think. The mathematics in winning papers is often no more advanced than calculus and statistics. What separates papers is the clarity of the modelling assumptions and the quality of the writing.

Is it really only fourteen hours?

Yes, consecutive, in a window your team chooses within the challenge weekend. That constraint is why practising a full timed run beforehand matters so much.

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