The 2025 International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS) was recently held in Beijing. Hanmeng Feng, an undergraduate student from the Class of 2021 in the School of Mathematical Sciences, received the prestigious ICBS Undergraduate Paper Award for her paper titled “Numerical Dynamics and Optimal Control for an Age-Structured SEIR Model with Relapse”.
Initiated by Fields Medalist Professor Shing-Tung Yau, this award aims to encourage meaningful mathematical research at the undergraduate level and to recognize outstanding academic potential among young scholars.
Feng began her research journey in her sophomore year, joining Professor Ling Xue’s research team on Complex Networks and Dynamical Systems. Her work focused on optimal control problems for age-structured epidemic models. Under the guidance of instructor Zhijie Chen, she tackled a high-dimensional, nonlinear model involving multiple pathogen strains. She developed a fully discrete numerical framework that improves computational efficiency while ensuring first-order convergence and designed an effective iterative updating mechanism for deriving stable and practical optimal control strategies.
Her first paper, “Numerical Dynamics and Optimal Control for Multi-Strain Age-Structured Epidemic Model,” co-authored with Zhijie Chen, was published in early 2025 in the top-tier interdisciplinary journal Journal of Mathematical Biology. Building on this foundation, Feng extended her research to include disease latency and relapse within the age-structured SEIR model, resulting in the award-winning paper.
In recent years, the School of Mathematical Sciences has placed a strong emphasis on fostering undergraduate research and innovation. The school actively encourages students to participate in academic projects and competitions to enhance their scientific and technological capabilities. Looking ahead, the school will continue to strengthen its approach of “solid foundations, interdisciplinary integration, and personalized training,” further advancing the development of the mathematical discipline and nurturing innovative talent with strong academic expertise.
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