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"To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real
feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to
learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the
language that she speaks in."- Richard Feynman.
This February the Math Department entered its first ever team in the
COMAP (Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications) Mathematical Contest in
Modelling. Three undergraduates Jasun Gong, Romeo Ahohe and Sevak Mkrtchyan
worked for four days to produce their paper "Shoot to Kill: Sphere Packing
Algorithms for Gamma-Knife Treatments".
The MCM is an international competition for undergraduates that is held every
February. Teams have four days to work on one of two real-world problems. This
years problems were on designing a safe motorcycle stunt or designing a
treatment plan for destroying cancerous cells using a gamma knife treatment.
The problems are chosen so as to have no "correct solution". Each team must
develop a model and test it using simulated or real data. The final solution is
submitted as a paper outlining the model, the methods used to test it and
conclusions on weaknesses/strengths of the model.
Preparations at Pitt began in fall with regular weekly meetings to look over
previous problems and discuss strategy. These informal meetings were supervised
by Prof. Jonathon Rubin and Andrew Marsh. The actual contest took place from
8pm on February 6th to 8pm February 10th. The team worked from Pitt all weekend
on their paper. Sleep was sacrificed on the last night as the team worked hard
to finish on time. The most challenging (and interesting) aspects of the
contest is that the students must work together on such a large project for
four days and finish by a strict deadline. Finishing the weekend on speaking
terms with your teammates is an achievement in itself.
The Pitt team chose to work on designing a treatment plan for applying gamma knife treatment to cancer cells. The Gamma Knife contains 201 cobalt-60 sources of approximately 30 curies each, placed in a circular array in a heavily shielded unit. The unit directs gamma radiation to a target point. (See pictures above and right.) Coincidentally, The Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a national leader in gamma knife treatment. Further details, pictures, even a video can be found on the Center's website.
Thanks must go to the Honors College and the Department of Mathematics. The
Honors College provided funding for the team. Without this it would have been
very difficult to participate. The Department of Mathematics provided
facilities for the team to use.
This will hopefully be just the beginning of the University of Pittsburgh's
participation in this unique contest.
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