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COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS EXCEL IN BATTLE OF BRAINS |
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November 11, 2009
GROVE CITY, Pa. – Grove City College computer science students solved more problems than ever before on their way to a Grove City team best finish at the regional IBM-sponsored “Battle of the Brains” Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest recently.
Two Grove City teams competed against 115 teams from 60 other schools throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, eastern Ontario and Indiana in the East Central North America competition on Oct. 31 at Youngstown State University in Ohio.
The “Bits & Bytes” team of junior Aaron Mininger from Halifax, Pa.; senior Susannah Johnson from Willow Grove, Pa.; and junior Shawn Recker from Finleyville, Pa., solved five out of eight problems, the most ever for a Grove City College team. Bits & Bytes topped 42 other teams from schools such as Allegheny College, University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, Kent State University, University of Akron and Baldwin-Wallace College at the Youngstown site and finished 11th out of 115 regional teams. Teams from only four other schools – Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, University of Waterloo and York University – solved more problems.
“This is an outstanding performance for us and is our best ever showing at the competition,” said Dr. David Adams, assistant professor of computer science and coach of the teams. “In previous years, our teams have managed to solve no more than three of the eight problems.”
The world’s most prestigious computer programming contest pits teams of three students against six or more complex, real-world problems and a five-hour deadline. Each team has access to one computer workstation and is given a set of independent problems that draw from high school and college mathematics and computing, as well as everyday knowledge and problem solving. Each solution is a program, composed by the team at the workstation.
The “Wolverines” team of junior Amelia Winchell from Hampstead, N.H.; junior Anthony Jantzi from Maytown, Pa.; and sophomore Gregory Miller from Winston-Salem, N.C., solved two problems and finished 49th out of 115 teams. Sophomore Jonathan Prystupa from Peekskill, N.Y. served as an alternate.
The regional contest was held at four sites: Youngstown and Cincinnati, Ohio; Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; and Ann Arbor, Mich. The top teams from each regional competition will compete in the world finals in China in February.
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