Students excel in programming contest

12/6/2012

Two Grove City College programming teams had record finishes in the East Central North America regional programming contest held Nov. 10 at Youngstown State University. 

The team calling itself “Ed’s Team” was comprised of senior Ed Quigley and juniors Mark Schrecengost and Gideon Ludwig. Out of 131 teams participating, “Ed’s Team” finished tenth, and their achievement marked the first time a Grove City College team has finished in the top ten. 

The second team, known as "www.gcc," was composed of sophomores Eric Weaver, Laura Wendlandt and Zack Wheeler. They finished fourteenth.

During the competition, a team’s three students share one workstation and are given nine programming problems to solve in a five-hour period. “Ed’s Team” solved six of the nine problems and “www.gcc” solved five. Commonly, participating teams solve one or fewer problems.

Prizes were given to the two Grove City College teams at the award ceremony. The East Central North America region is considered to be one of the strongest in the world and includes strong engineering and computer science schools. Of the teams participating at the Youngstown State location, the Grove City College teams finished third and fourth, behind the two teams from Carnegie Mellon University.