An NDSU student team finished 32nd out of 239 teams in a regional computer programming competition, which included schools stretching from Manitoba to Kansas. The competition, held Nov. 3, was part of the International Collegiate Programming Contest sponsored by IBM.
The contest involved a five-hour programming session where teams were given nine problems to solve in C, C++ or Java. The problems are often humorous and always relate to algorithm or problem-solving methods.
As part of the North Central North American region, NDSU hosted one of several regional competition sites, all of which run concurrently and use the same question set. Six teams from NDSU, three teams from the University of North Dakota, one team from Minnesota State University Moorhead and one team from Concordia College participated locally.
NDSU’s top finishing team was named Drop Table Teams comprised of Davin Loegering, Nate Spanier and Michael Nelson, finished first locally. A team from the University of Minnesota placed first in the region and will advance to the world competition in St. Petersburg, Russia.
“The teams did really well this year. The questions seemed a bit more complicated than in the past,” said Robert Foertsch, systems administrator in NDSU’s computer science department. “Placing 32nd in the region is good.”
Anne Denton, computer science associate professor, coached the NDSU teams.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.
