A team of three Rowan math students thought outside the box at this year's Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), earning an award for their creative efforts. The international online competition involving 949 teams from 12 countries, required students to analyze, model and submitted solution to one of two problems.

The Rowan seniors, Joshua Dunn, Walter Jacob, and Matthew Oster chose to solve an airline-seating problem. The problem asked teams to devise and compare procedures for boarding and de-boarding plane with various amounts of passengers from 85 to 800.

The team, advised by Professor Hieu Nguyen, won MCM's "Ben Fusaro Award" for the most creative solution for their randomized approach to passenger seating. A big factor in winning was the student's special training research from Professor Christopher Lacke.