Baylor Programmers To Compete In International Contest

by Judy Long

Baylor University's top undergraduate computer programmers will compete Nov. 2 at Louisiana State University in the regional level of the 2002-2003 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. The contest will draw 75 teams from 36 colleges and universities throughout Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico.
The first and second place winners of the regional competition will compete in the international contest March 22-26, 2003, in Los Angeles, with more than 60 teams from 67 countries. In all, more than 17,000 students will participate in this year's event.
Students representing Baylor for 2002-2003 are juniors Jack Gorman from Snyder, Texas; Josh Shelton from Graceville, Fla.; and Nathaniel Glass from Richwood, Texas. The team's coach, Dr. David Sturgill, assistant professor of computer science, will accompany them to LSU.
In addition to Baylor students participating in the contest, computer science professor Bill Poucher has served as the contest's director for 17 years. Poucher became involved in the contest in 1977 at its inception and has been instrumental in its growth from a regional contest to its current size, with 839 colleges and universities competing last year at the various regional competitions.
In the contest, teams will race to solve six to eight real-world programming challenges in five hours, which is equivalent to completing a semester's worth of computer programming in one afternoon. Each team huddles around a single computer to race against the clock in a battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance. Winners of the Los Angeles competition will receive scholarships and other prizes.
Winning schools in the 2001-2002 competition were Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston; and University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
For more information, contact Poucher at (254) 710-3869.