JMU Math & Stat: SCUDEM

Join a SCUDEM Challenge Team

SCUDEM (SIMIODE Challenge Using Differential Equations) is a fun community event for high school and undergraduate students. Teams of students work for about a week on a modeling scenario with their faculty coach at home, and then travel to a host site where they'll be challenged to consider a slight adaption of their model and present their findings to a panel.

SCUDEM is sponsored by SIMIODE -- Systemic Initiative for Modeling investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations -- a 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization, which is funded in part by the National Science Foundation in the United States. Anyone interested in modeling with mathematics, specifically with the STEM pivotal material known as differential equations, can join SIMIODE free at www.simiode.org.

Teams of up to three students each work for over a week on their choice of a real world challenge. Challenge scenario examples from previous years include chemical signals from wasps and butterflies; the phenomenon of the hipster effect and group dynamics; and landing a spacecraft in a microgravity environment.  At the SCUDEM Challenge Saturday event, over 600 students bring their own mathematical descriptions of real situations to share with fellow students and faculty to over 70 local site host schools in the United States and beyond. 

For information contact Director@simiode.org, or one of the local organizers: thelwerj@jmu.edu or sochacki@jmu.edu.