Several Mississippi State University students will be visiting Daytona Beach, Fla., but not for pleasure. The students will be representing the university in the regional championship competition for the 2003 ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Southeast USA Programming Contest, sponsored by IBM.
The contest, held Oct. 24-25, draws students from colleges and universities from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. It is part of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, which selects winners from each regional contests held on six continents.
At the regional competitions, teams will face a series of six to eight complex, real-world programming challenges to complete within five hours. During the competition, the MSU teams will be forced to tackle problems that are the equivalent in difficulty of completing a semester’s worth of computer programming, all in the course of a single afternoon. The team that answers the most problems correctly in the least amount of time emerge as regional champions and advance to the world finals.
From the thousands of teams competing in the series of regional contests worldwide, only 72 teams will advance to the finals in Prague, the Czech Republic, from March 28 to April 1.
At the world finals, students will compete for awards and scholarships.
“The ACM Intercollegiate Programming Competition is an opportunity for programmers around the world to show off their programming skills against the best programmers out there. It is also an opportunity for these students to meet and get to know other students from around the region and the world,” said Dave Dampier, regional competition coach.
“The students gain a very healthy perspective about competition and problem-solving under pressure,” Dampier continued. “MSU gains from the exposure of our programs to other talented students around the region and the world. This could lead to some of these students choosing MSU for graduate school. Not to mention that trophy looks really good in the office,” he joked.
Donna Reese, principal adviser for the ACM on campus and the local competitions, said that MSU has been competing in the ACM Competition for at least the last 10 years. The programming competition was established over 30 years ago.
MSU currently has two teams competing in the contest. Members of the Maroon team include Davis Herring, Jay Stenmark and Matt Elliott.
“Last year was our first year to win and we really were the underdogs. We’ve made ourselves known and now it is time to step up and defend our title,” said Stenmark, a senior in computer engineering. “We’ve practiced a lot of problems this year, but it ultimately comes down to the day of the competition.”
“I am looking forward to going to Florida as it will be my first time. I am looking forward to standing up to the best of the region and showing them what MSU is made of,” said Elliot, a senior in computer science.
Team White members consist of newcomers Ben Craig, Burns Smith and Don Goodman. Alternates include Kennabec Walp and Chris Waters, who served as the Maroon team’s alternate during last year’s competition.
“I’ve been participating since 1995,” said Goodman, a graduate student in cognitive science. “What am I looking forward to? Six hours of intense concentration and competition.”
Team members were selected through a local competition held in September, Dampier said. The top six competitors were put into two teams and the next two were designated as alternates.
This year the teams consisted of the two groups, with the winning regional team last year being allowed to return and compete in order to defend their title, Dampier said. One of the students from the original team had graduated, so he was replaced with the top finisher out of the local competition. The other team was made from the rest of the top finishers at the local competition.
The Maroon team made it to the world finals last year. The White team placed in the top 30 out of 100 teams at the regional competition.
Vinoad Senguttuvan, a former graduate student in computer engineering who competed last year, is the only member not returning to compete for the Maroon team this year.
Because of last year’s success several team members are excited about the upcoming competition, Stenmark said.
“I feel like a bulldog. This is the SEC championship game of programming. As in any championship game, pride runs high, but we also have to keep cool and focus on the task at hand. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend in Daytona Beach and showing the CS majors how to have fun,” said Stenmark.