Groups entering the contest had the choice of two problems. The first was investigating the spread of dandelion seeds (HiMCM Problem A, below), and the second was modeling the promotion of electric buses (HiMCM Problem B, below). The two entries in 2023 both achieved a Meritorious Award, the best results to date (2024).
Meritorious
Problem chosen: B In recent years, cities worldwide have dedicated increased efforts to completely transitioning their bus fleets to electric. The transportation officials of these cities face difficulties during the planning process due to the limitation of the high cost of transition and the efficient allocation of money to achieve full transformation in a limited amount of time. Our work studies the method by which transportation authorities can receive support in their planning to forecast the environmental benefit and financial gains through the project. […]
Meritorious
Problem chosen: B Over the past years, electric buses have emerged as a clean and sustainable alternative to traditional public transportation. As a relatively new invention, the first having been produced in 2014, they seem to have countless benefits. Reduced greenhouse gas emissions due to their lack of production of tailpipe emissions, improvement of air quality, and their higher energy efficiency when compared to their conventional counterparts, their contribution to sustainable transportation goals and thus their attractiveness for the cities is not hard to see. […]