2023 Modeling the Future Challenge Finalists

The Actuarial Foundation is proud to announce the finalists in the 2022-2023 Modeling the Future Challenge, a national scholarship competition giving  high school students the opportunity to predict the future and solve world problems. Student participants in the Challenge take on the role of aspiring actuaries by completing a math modeling project and presenting their research to a panel of actuary judges for an opportunity to win up to $55,000 in scholarship awards.

Selected from a total of 227 teams of high school juniors and seniors from across the country, 53 students making up 13 teams have qualified to present at the 2023 Modeling the Future Challenge Virtual Symposium on April 25-27, 2023. Congratulations to this year’s finalist teams: Youcef Chahboun, Michael Dai, Jennifer Li, Davis Rattanavijai and Tsubasa Tamura from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts; Ace Chun, Steven Wang, Michael Wang, Isabelle Yang and Daniel He from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland; Alyssa Chang, Brandon Chang, Jayden Cho, Kent Gao and Omkar Guha from West Ranch High School in Stevenson Ranch, California; Ishan Guthikonda, Bhaumik Mehta. Panav Pallothu, Shreyus Vadhavkar and Alex Wang from West-Windsor Plainsboro High School in North Plainsboro, New Jersey; Tyler Li, Alex Lin, Kevin Shen and Alexander Wang from Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois; Jace Sawicka from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts; Abhinav Gorrepati, Shreyans Jain, Sarthak Jain, Vinay Singamsetty and Ryan Tabatabai from ESUHSD/Silver Creek High School in San Jose, California; Julia Hudson from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois; Amar Kanakamedala, Jeffrey Liu, Evan Wu, Henry Yu and Lou Zhou from Memphis University School in Memphis, Tennessee; Shorya Malani, Anmol Mital, Risshi Naavaal and Aaron Wang from Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond, Virginia; Jilly Choi, Sai Javvadi, Douglas Lin, Farhan Sheikh and Gopalaniruddh Tadinada from duPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky; Ethan Hu, Alex Kuai, Aaron Paker, Yuhan Wu and Andrew Zhuo from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts and  Pranil Arsid, Jay Parikh and Sohan Sahay from Whitney High School in Cerritos, California.

The 2022-2023 Modeling the Future Challenge was once again an open-theme, allowing students to identify their own topics for their research projects. Topic categories for this year’s Challenge range from draught severity to data breaches in the healthcare sector to space debris to reducing recidivism in Iowa state prisons. Teams were tasked with analyzing historic data and making models following the Actuarial Process. Of the 227 teams that registered and completed Phase One of the Challenge, 110 semi-finalist teams made it to Phase Two—the Project Phase. During the Project Phase, each team was matched with an actuarial mentor to provide the students with guidance on their project. Mentors met virtually with their teams three times during the project period to answer questions and help the team develop an actuarial report and presentation.

Finalist teams will present their models at the Virtual Modeling the Future Challenge Symposium on April 25-27, 2023. The Virtual Symposium is the culminating event of the competition, providing an immersive learning experience for students and giving them the opportunity to participate in career sessions, problem-solving activities, virtual tours, and other unique experiences created in partnership with the Foundation’s corporate supporters and volunteers. This year, we are particularly excited to welcome Dominic Lee, the Maverick Actuary, as our keynote speaker. Finalist teams are excited and up for the Challenge! As finalist team member Davis Rattanavijai from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts said during the Finalist Announcement ceremony, “We are electrified to be selected as a finalist team for the 2023 Modeling the Future Challenge. My team and I give our thanks to our mentor Susan Witcraft and the Modeling the Future Challenge organizers and sponsors for giving us this fruitful yet mind challenging opportunity. We are hyped to present our project at the Symposium in April. Thank you to our fellow finalists and best of luck to everyone!”

The Modeling the Future Challenge is made possible with the generous support of Pioneer Sponsor RGA Foundation, Pacesetter Sponsors Casualty Actuarial Society and Lincoln Financial Group, Builder Sponsors F&G Annuities & Life and Rick and Beth Jones, Founding Sponsors Roy & Georgia Goldman and Helen Galt Education Award Supporter Prudential.