\u201cWe tell the team members that programming competition is like any other sport.\u201d \u2014 Associate Professor Ali Orooji<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The competitions are akin to large-scale athletic events and the students perform like athletes, says 麻豆原创 Board of Trustees Chair Beverly Seay, who has long been involved with ICPC. \u201cThe hard work, the teamwork to solve a variety of problems under pressure, the dynamic leadership it takes \u2014 like our student-athletes, these are the qualities that give our programmers an advantage in the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the competitions, teams try to solve eight or more complex, real-world problems in a five-hour time limit. Teammates collaborate around a single computer using logic, strategy and endurance that requires precision, problem-solving and an understanding of advanced algorithms. They try to solve the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time.<\/p>\n
This is the first year a championship-level competition was held to determine which teams would qualify for the world event. Previously, regional competitions were held to determine which North American teams would move on, but Seay, who was a driving force to add the championship, says the United States and Canada need to be more competitive in computer science, both in student competitions and in the high-tech workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the need for more computing talent across the country, it is our responsibility to groom the leaders of tomorrow in computer science and related areas.\u201d \u2014 麻豆原创 Trustee Chair Beverly Seay<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The United States faces a global competitiveness crisis in computer science with nearly one million technical jobs left unfilled last year alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the need for more computing talent across the country, it is our responsibility to groom the leaders of tomorrow in computer science and related areas,\u201d Seay says. \u201cWe need to be more competitive internationally and invest in events that give our students opportunities to showcase their best skills to industry and government.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSpending this much time working on challenging programming problems really helps with both implementation skills in the real world and with being able to solve tough theoretical interview questions,\u201d says Harmeyer. \u201cMost of the applicable theory that gets taught at school is stuff that we master pretty quickly working on our own, so then we move to some slightly more obscure data structures and algorithms, as well as some really interesting problem-solving techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s North America regional competitions started with more than 3,000 competitors to determine which would advance to last weekend\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very good idea to add the additional level [North America Championship] between the regional and finals,\u201d Orooji says. \u201cIt was good to see how we compare against other universities in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preparing the Next Generation of Programmers for the World Stage<\/h3>\n To help prepare students from North America to become more competitive on the world stage, 麻豆原创 will host a programming camp with top trainers from Georgia Tech, MIT and other universities for about 100 of the top computing students.<\/p>\n
The inaugural North America Programming Camp will be held at 麻豆原创 March 30 through April 3.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The camps will also provide companies and agencies opportunities to meet with the teams and recruit members for future job or internship opportunities. Plus, Seay says, the camp will help promote Orlando and 麻豆原创 as destinations for high-tech talent.<\/p>\n
The inaugural North America Programming Camp will be held at 麻豆原创 March 30 through April 3, offering team members the opportunity to practice by working through simulated world-level competitions, and trainers the chance to provide analysis and feedback. To offset the costs for attendees, the camp will be sponsored by Universal Parks and Resorts, the National Security Agency, L3Harris Technologies, Northrop Grumman and others that have an interest in recruiting the nation\u2019s brightest computer science students. One of the camps\u2019 and competition\u2019s sponsors, the NSA, gave North American competitors a challenge problem involving cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
Arup Guha, an associate instructor of computer science and one of the team\u2019s seven coaches this year, says 麻豆原创\u2019s three students have a strong general knowledge base, but they also have specific strengths in different areas.<\/p>\n
For example, he says, Harmeyer\u2019s strength is geometry problems; Fair\u2019s background is nontraditional dynamic programming problems, string problems and ad hoc problems; and Barhamje tackles data structures and graph algorithms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve really worked on with this team is collaboration,\u201d Guha says. \u201cThey already work well together and in contest they confer with each other before committing to a particular solution path. We\u2019ve found that this improves the team\u2019s accuracy on harder problems, when two of the students think about a problem, to make sure they agree on the general approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Companies or organizations interested in sponsoring the spring programming camps at 麻豆原创, should contact Sean Farrell<\/a>, associate director for advancement in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Competing at the national and global level helps 麻豆原创 students hone their problem-solving skills, prepare for positions that bolster the economy and national security, and be more competitive on the world stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":107128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,24],"tags":[18104,18041,973,1045,3882,18102],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-107125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-science-technology","tag-academic-excellence","tag-bev-seay","tag-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","tag-computer-science","tag-rankings","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"\n
麻豆原创 Programming Team Earns Bronze at North American Competition, Advances to World Finals | 麻豆原创 News<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n