Georgia Southern University hosting regional “Olympics” of computer programming
It’s being billed as ‘the battle of the brains.”
Set for Saturday, Oct. 28, this war will be waged at Georgia Southern University’s state-of-the-art College of Information Technology. As host site for the regional finals of the 31st Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest, the University will welcome teams of computer science students from universities throughout the Southeastern United States including Georgia Tech and the University of Miami.
This ACM contest, sponsored by IBM, is the ‘Olympics of computer programming,” said contest regional director Dr. James K. Harris, chair of Computer Science in Georgia Southern’s College of Information Technology. The winning regional team will compete at the World Finals set for March 12-16, 2007, in Tokyo, Japan.
‘This contest attracts some of the best and brightest computer science programmers,” Harris said. ‘It’s not uncommon for regional and international winners to receive job offers from top corporations or scholarships to pursue graduate study.”
According to Harris, student teams, comprised of up to three members per team, will be given 11 programming problems to solve in a five-hour period
‘This is a mentally grueling competition,” said Harris, who has been involved with the contest for several years, having served not only as a coach for previous Georgia Southern teams but as a judge at other regional competitions. ‘Not only does it test the programming ability of the teams, but their ability to prioritize and collaborate.”
In last year’s event, the Georgia Southern team placed second in Division II at the regional competition held at the Florida Institute of Technology. This is the first time that Georgia Southern University is serving as the host site for the regional finals. Teams will compete in the University’s state-of-the-art Eagle Informatics Computer Laboratory, housed in the College of Information Technology.
Colleges can enter multiple teams for this regional competition.
Approximately 50 teams are registered to attend from the following universities:
- Armstrong Atlantic State University
- Augusta State University
- Bob Jones University
- Columbus State University
- Florida Atlantic University
- Florida International University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Georgia Southern University
- Mercer University
- North Georgia College & State University
- University of Central Florida
- University of Florida
- University of Georgia
- University of Miami
- University of North Florida
- University of South Florida
- Valdosta State University
- Winthrop University
- Wofford College
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