MAGNOLIA, Ark. — A team of three Southern Arkansas University students competed in the 32nd annual Association for Computing Machinery Mid-Central USA International Collegiate Programming Contest held at Arkansas Tech University on November 3.
The team placed third among 18 teams from Arkansas and 25th among 120 teams from five different states including many large schools such as the University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the University of Kentucky.
This is the best state and regional finish they’ve had since SAU teams began competing in 2002, said Dr. Hong Cheng, the team coach and associate professor of math and computer science. This year’s team included Dipen Joshi, a senior computer science major from Irving, Nepal, Luke Lowery, a senior computer science major from Smackover, Ark., and Darshan Shrestha, a senior computer science major from Kathmandu, Nepal.
“I think mostly this contest helps them with their problem solving abilities,” Cheng said. “It helps them face tough questions and compete with large schools. They learn there is always something to improve and they make goals to improve themselves. They practice a lot of what they learn in the class and this helps them become a better student and will make them better at programming. The result (of this contest) proves that our students can compete at a very high level.”
During the competition, the three person teams participated in a decisive regional round of problem solving and were challenged to use their programming skills and rely on their mental endurance to solve complex, real world problems under a grueling five-hour deadline. Tackling these problems is equivalent to completing a semester’s worth of computer programming in one afternoon.
The ACM Mid-Central USA Programming Contest draws from colleges and universities throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois (including the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area in Indiana), Missouri, and Arkansas. In Arkansas, the SAU team competed against Arkansas Tech University, Harding University, Hendrix College, the University of Arkansas, the University of Central Arkansas of Fort Smith and the University of Central Arkansas.
