Science & Technology

UWF team earns first place in regional computer programming contest

On Saturday, Nov. 9, the Department of Computer Science at the University of West Florida hosted the annual Southeast Association for Computing Machine Regional Programming contest as one of four regional sites.

UWF Students during the ACM Programming Competition

The contest was held simultaneously at the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina; Kennesaw State University, Marietta, Georgia; and Florida International University, Miami, Florida. At the UWF site 11 student teams from UWF and four other regional universities competed in Division I and Division II of the regional contest.

During the five hour competition, teams of three students wrote computer programs to solve algorithmic problems. Solutions were submitted online from the team’s assigned computers and instantly evaluated. The goal was to solve the most number of problems correctly with the lowest quantity of penalty points. For every failed attempt to solve a problem, teams were penalized points. The competition aimed to improve the skills necessary to solve problems with computers.

At the UWF site, teams from the University of Florida placed first, second and third in Division I. A UWF team placed first in Division II of the competition, while teams from the University of South Alabama placed second and third. Contestants from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Mercer University placed first in Division I and Division II, respectively, among the overall 122 teams that competed in the event.

For more information about the ACM Southeast Regional Programming Competition, visit online.

For more information about the Department of Computer Science, visit uwf.edu/computerscience.