Two teams of Elon students earned Meritorious Mention honors for their work in the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM) competition, held Feb. 7-11. Details...
Elon’s two teams included:
- Joy Blackwell-senior
- Bob Davis-junior
- Amber Dennison-senior
- Katie Iwancio-junior
- Shaun Lynott-junior
- Nate Schown-junior
- Crista Coles-faculty advisor
- Todd Lee-faculty advisor
The Elon teams were two of only 16 teams to earn Meritorious Mention, the second highest recognition in the competition. Only two teams received the top recognition of Outstanding. A total of 106 teams participated, representing colleges and universities from the United States and around the world.
The students were asked to consider the migration and reproductive habits of the scrub lizard, an endangered lizard which lives in the central and Atlantic coastal regions of Florida. The lizard’s long-term survival is dependent upon the proper spatial configuration and size of its habitat patches. Using data supplied by ICM, the students were asked to predict the lizard’s ability to survive migration between habitat patches. The teams were also asked to propose recommendations to preserve habitats and to discuss the practical obstacles to implementing those recommendations.
ICM challenges teams of students to clarify, analyze and propose solutions to open-ended problems. The contest features a realistic problem and an extended period of time for teams to prepare solution papers. The teams are allowed to use outside resources in preparing their papers, including computers and textbooks.