Zhong Chongyu, Zeng Zeng, Miao Lianhai: The Opportunity is always Left to Prepared People


Author: Liu Yiwen, Huang Meifang  Date: May 27, 2016



From the left to the right: Miao Lianhai, Zeng Zeng, Zhong Chongyu

Determining the topic, completing the modeling, Writing all in English within 4 days ... ... Can you image it? This is the test of the Mathematical Contest In Modeling (MCM / ICM) for each team, and the team constituted with Zhong Chongyu and Miao Lianhai, students of Class 131 of Information and Computing Science of School of Sciences, Zeng Zeng, a studnet of Class 132 of International Economics and Trade of School of Economics & Management, was one of them. However, they not only successfully completed the game, but also won the first prize of the 2016 Mathematical Contest In Modeling (MCM / ICM) by virtue of "Interesting Information, Amusing Spread, Fascinating Society Network" and excellent performance.

What behind the glory is their hard work. It is reported that there are more than 37,000 students from 12,411 teams of 13 countries (regions) took part in the current MCM / ICM, which can be described as a master gathered competition.


Miao Lianhai: Digesting the contents of a piece of paper with six days

“Preparedness ensures success and unpreparedness spells failure. After this contest, my greatest feeling is that adequate preparation is necessary for any work. Our team’s MCM / ICM award is inseparable with our serious training and positive ready at ordinary times.” Miao Lianhai was happy to say.



"I remember that when we prepared for the contest, I accidentally found a new method while searching for paper: encyclopedia of algorithm. At that time, I thought this algorithm is infrequent, so I decided to learn by myself. However, the encyclopedia of algorithm is too difficult, I would take five or six days to digest the contents of a piece of of paper. Everyday I studied more than ten hours in the library, at night I went back to dormitory faintly and dazzledly and fell asleep quickly. Day after day, I spent more than two months to understand the whole encyclopedia of algorithm.” The hardships of the contest impressed him deeply. “It is such a exercise that makes us stronger and stronger.”

Hard work pays off! In the contest, the knowledge of encyclopedia of algorithm was used in the building of model. “One week before the contest, we had just mastered the encyclopedia of algorithm, unexpectedly it came in handy. The new algorithm model contributed a lot to this award.” Miao Lianhai said.

Motto: Work hard but not care harvest!

Zeng Zeng: Have confidence and difficulty is not terrible

As the only girl of team, Zeng Zeng joined in midway. Because she is good at English and works earnestly and carefully, so she was mainly responsible for English writing. “In order to overcome the shortcomings of Chinese-English translation (literal translation), I usually wrote in English directly in the course of competition and training. In order to be able to express accurately, sometimes I spent long time in pondering the most befitting words and sentences until I got the satisfied one.” Zeng Zeng said with a smile.

Full English writing is difficult to non-English majors. Since deciding to participate in mathematical modeling training, she scientifically made a learning plan, corrected personal schedule, spent all the time in reading and learning everyday except sleep time. By virtue of this insistence and assiduity, her English level has a substantial increase, English writing is more skilled.

“During the contest, I caught a cold, had a fever and felt terrible, but I had to overcome them and stick to complete the paper. At those days, I basically sat in front of computer with a pained neck for seventeen or eighteen hours everyday, which is a big test for body and volition.” Zeng Zeng recalled that scene and said quietly, “before taking participate in mathematical modeling, I always flinched in the face of difficulties, but now in retrospect, the difficulties are not terrible, as long as you firm confidence and meet difficulties face to face, many problems will be solved."

Motto: Happy to live, happy to learn, always keep good mood!

Zhong Chongyu: Success needs patience

Zhong Chongyu is a guy from the northeast, he naturally reveals a confident and open-minded look in the conversation. Zhong Chongyu studies science, has strong logical thinking ability, in the team he was responsible for the topic and modeling.

"I think the hardest question in the contest is how to build a model, which requires us to consider many factors and make precise calculation. In order to successfully complete a model about “if a message can be news” in our contest paper Social network and Information Dissemination, I specifically consulted a lot of news and communication knowledge.” Zhong Chongyu said, “modeling was not always smooth, many times the model we built had small mistakes, which demanded us to inspect patiently, adjust carefully, correct and improve ceaselessly.

“The process of MCM / ICM contest, we can describe it with ‘pain and happy’. It happened to be the winter vacation and students dormitory was cut off the water supply, we had to carry a kettle to the teaching building to fetch drinking water; sometimes we arrived at the canteen late, there was no food left for us and we could only eat instant noodles in the dormitory. But looking back upon these challenges, we take them as our valuable experience.”

Motto: There is no shortcut to success!