Students Compete in the ACM Mid-Atlantic Regional Programming Competition

Two teams from Penn State Harrisburg competed in the 2010 ACM Mid-Atlantic Regional Programming Contest on November 6.  The Penn State students included Matthew Godshall, Jennifer Green, Christopher Jackson, Jason Jones, Amanda Minner, and John Seaman.

This competition included 157 teams from colleges and universities in the region spanning from New Jersey through North Carolina.  These teams came from schools including Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina, College of William and Mary, and Duke University.  A team from Duke University won the competition. 

Teams were given eight problems to try to solve in five hours.  The team scores were based on the number of problems correctly solved.  In the case of a tie, the total time required to solve the problems is used as a tie-breaker.  However, any incorrect submission resulted in a penalty of 20 minutes being added to the total time.

The problem sets for the ACM competitions are notoriously difficult.  Teams can find that a small mistake in their proposed solution prevents them from successfully solving a problem.  Moreover, it can be very difficult to determine the nature of the mistake due to the very limited information provided by the automated grading system.  Both teams worked hard in the competition.  And the team, comprised of Jennifer Green, Amanda Minner, and John Seaman, was able to place ahead of nearly 100 teams.  The teams are now looking forward to programming competitions in the spring, including one that will be held for local teams at nearby Dickinson College.  

If you are interested in participating in upcoming programming contests, please contact Prof. Jeremy Blum at jjb24@psu.edu.

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Jeremy Blum, D.Sc.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Penn State Harrisburg
777 W. Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, PA 17057
Email:  jjb24@psu.edu
Phone:  (717) 948-6686