The rapidly advancing fields of machine learning and mathematical modeling, greatly enhanced by the recent growth in artificial intelligence, are the focus of this special issue. This issue compiles extensively revised and improved versions of the top papers from the workshop on Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving at PDPTA'23, the 29th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications. Covering fundamental research in matrix operations and heuristic searches to real-world applications in computer vision and drug discovery, the issue underscores the crucial role of supercomputing and parallel and distributed computing infrastructure in research. Featuring nine key studies, this issue pushes forward computational technologies in mathematical modeling, refines techniques for analyzing images and time-series data, and introduces new methods in pharmaceutical and materials science, making significant contributions to these areas.