Participation in an intensive online, math competition has added up to a first-place win for a group of Florida high school students.

The team of five 11th and 12th graders from Pine View School in Osprey took home the top prize of $20,000 in college scholarships after being chosen from thousands of high school juniors and seniors across the U.S. as the winners of this year’s MathWorks Math Modeling (M3) Challenge, a prestigious competition that demonstrates the importance of math in everyday life.

Kristoffer Selberg, Michael Gutierrez, Pragnya Govindu, Nicholas Butakow and Christiana Guan were among 3,500 students — working in 760 teams — who participated in this year’s Challenge.

A second team from Pine View School placed in the top six of the competition, landing team finalists — Jack Gallahan, Alexander Douglas, Vinay Konuru, Danny McDonald and Julia Kourelakos — a scholarship prize of $5,000.

Now in its 15th year, the 2020 M3 Challenge saw students spend 14 consecutive hours between February 28-March 2 using mathematical modeling tools to solve a real-world problem by collecting data and creating models, and submitting their solutions online. This year’s problem, developed with help from industry association North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE), asked students to recommend solutions for the trucking industry’s transition from diesel to electric power.

Clicl here for more about the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).