HiMCM 2016 · Problem set
Two operations problems with a strong scheduling-and-siting flavor. Problem A asks you to run a 2,000-athlete triathlon as a wave-start queueing system that keeps the roads closed for as little time as possible; Problem B asks you to lay out a continental warehouse network that promises one-day ground shipping while minimizing sales-tax exposure. Both reward clean data-driven assumptions and a memo that a decision-maker can actually act on.
| Contest dates | November 11 – November 14, 2016 (5-day window) [illustrative] |
| Participation | ~700 teams, primarily United States and China [illustrative] |
| Problem A | Swim, Bike, and Run — triathlon wave-start scheduling and congestion management |
| Problem B | Shop and Ship — continental warehouse siting for one-day ground shipping |
| Official results | 2016 HiMCM problems & commentary |
The two problems
Swim, Bike, and Run
Schedule a 2,000-athlete triathlon: build divisions from race-history data, design a wave-start plan that minimizes course congestion, and keep total road-closure time under 5.5 hours.
Shop and Ship
Find the smallest set of warehouses in the continental U.S. that can ground-ship to every customer in one day, then re-examine the layout against state sales-tax exposure and a broader apparel inventory.
Why this year is good practice
- Both are heavily data-driven. A gives you a real race-results dataset to segment athletes; B requires you to scrape or assemble U.S. population, road-network, and state-tax tables. Practice the "data first, model second" habit.
- Two flavors of optimization. A is a scheduling / packing problem (assign waves to start slots subject to a time-window constraint); B is a classic facility-location / set-cover problem on the U.S. road network.
- Strong stakeholder framing. A asks for a recommendation to a race director; B asks for a memo to the company's CFO. Both reward concrete numbers — start-list PDF in A, a map with pins and a tax-savings table in B.