(XJTLU, China – 6th Apr il, 2009) Eleven teams from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University entered the revered International Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and came away with 5 top prizes, in a competition that attracts over 2,000 teams from over 500 education institutions.

Out of the 2,049 teams that entered this year, XJTLU teams took 4 Meritorious Prizes (1st) and 1 Honourable Mention Prize (2nd), competing alongside world renowned institutions including Oxford, Harvard and Tsinghua. The competition seeks clarity, analysis and solutions to a problem of advanced complexity.

Prof Guo, the Head of XJTLU’s Mathematics and Physics Teaching Centre (MPTC), acted as advisor for some of the teams. He said: “This result ranks among the first several universities in China, surpassing many famous universities, which fully shows our students’ remarkable ability of applying mathematics to solving complex problems and writing research papers in English.”

Professor Smith, XJTLU’s Vice-President in charge of Academic Affairs commented, “This achievement demonstrates the excellent mathematical and English ability of our students who participated in the 3 day event during the Chinese Spring Festival vacation. I would also like to thank the staff of the MPTC for encouraging the students to participate and for acting as mentors to the teams.”

This is only the second time that teams from XJTLU have entered the competition, although of the 4 teams that entered last year, 1 took away an Honourable Mention Prize. Such rapid recognition is testimony to student ability and teaching excellence in this University. Prof Guo added: “It is also the achievement of the new teaching concept, and the teaching of mathematics and English of our university.”

The MCM competition has been running for 24 years, and her prizes are highly sought after. Teams from XJTLU will continue to enter the competition, and hope to build on these early successes. For more information, please contact Prof Guo at Jingming.Guo@xjtlu.edu.cn, or visit our website, http://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/depts/mptc