Recently, the list of winners for the 2026 (12th) National College Student Statistical Modeling Competition, organized by the Chinese Society for Statistical Education, was announced. Following last year’s national first prize in the undergraduate division, our university once again achieved the outstanding result of winning the national first prize in the graduate division of this competition! A total of 61 teams from our university registered for the campus-level competition (40 in the undergraduate division and 21 in the graduate division). Based on the quotas allocated by the provincial organizing committee, our university recommended 30 teams to participate in the provincial and national competitions. In total, we won 3 national awards and 16 provincial awards, including 1 national first prize, 2 national third prizes, and 5 first prizes in the Guangdong regional competition (4 in the undergraduate division and 1 in the graduate division), 3 Second Prizes in the Guangdong Regional Competition (1 in the undergraduate division and 2 in the graduate division), and 8 Third Prizes in the Guangdong Regional Competition (5 in the undergraduate division and 3 in the graduate division). The list of national-level awards won by our university is as follows:

Students Song Fang, Lai Jiayi, and Xia Si’yi at the national competition defense session

The National College Student Statistical Modeling Competition is organized by the Chinese Society for Statistical Education. It aims to foster a positive atmosphere for learning and applying statistics among college students, encourage attention to pressing economic and social issues, meet the demands of universities and statistical agencies for statistical talent in the era of big data, enhance students’ abilities in data mining, data analysis, and the application of statistical methods and computer technology to process data, strengthen innovative thinking, and help advance statistical modernization reforms. The competition has been held biennially since 2009. Starting with the 7th competition in 2021, it was changed to an annual event. For the 8th competition in 2022, provincial competitions were introduced for the first time, with 28 provincial competition zones established nationwide, each hosted by a designated university. In 2024, university-level competitions were added, organized independently by each institution.

The School of Mathematical Sciences at Shenzhen University places great importance on competition organization and training. It formed a training team led by Associate Professor Li Songchen and primarily composed of faculty members from the Department of Statistics and Data Science to guide students participating in the university-level round of the National College Students’ Statistical Modeling Competition. In mid-May, the school established a review panel led by Vice Dean Han Yu, with Professor Zhou Yan—Chair of the Department of Statistics and Data Science—serving as deputy leader. The panel evaluated the 61 entries submitted for the university-level competition and recommended the first-prize winners at the university level to advance to the provincial competition. Subsequently, the School organized students to participate in the on-site defense for the provincial competition held in Guangzhou on June 27, as well as the on-site defense for the national competition held at Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics from August 17 to 19.

Moving forward, the School will further strengthen publicity efforts and pre-competition training for statistical modeling competitions to expand student participation and enhance the overall performance of the competing teams!