The School of Information Technology and Computing hosts a series of computer programming contests every year. These contests are designed to create a fun and friendly competitive atmosphere in which students can use, test, and develop their computer programming skills.
In the typical programming contest, players compete in teams of three. They are given one computer, eight or nine programming puzzles, and 3-5 hours in which to solve as many of those puzzles as possible using Java, C, or C++ code. Prizes are awarded to teams solving the greatest number of puzzles correctly; time records are used to break ties.
Learn more about each programming contest (including past winners) below.
ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) holds an annual programming contest for college students worldwide. Abilene Christian University students have competed in the ICPC for three decades. In the past several years, ACU has also served as a satellite host site for the South Central USA region during the ICPC regionals. The other host sites in our region include East Central University, Louisiana State University, and Texas A&M University.
The ICPC for the South Central USA region is usually held in October or November. World finals take place in a different international city every year in April.
2008 ICPC South Central USA Results
2007 ICPC South Central USA Results
2006 ICPC South Central USA Results
ACU Lifeline Programming Contest ("Lifeline")
Lifeline is an ACU invitational contest for teams at both the collegiate and corporate levels. This contest gives college students an opportunity to test themselves against the expertise of professional computer programmers, while allowing the professionals a fun atmosphere away from work in which to prove themselves against the college kids. Lifeline further distinguishes itself from other programming contests in that, rather than flying solo for the entire duration of the contest, each team may use up to three "lifelines" - ten-minute timeout sessions with a coach - after the first hour of competition. At the end of the contest, prizes are awarded to the winning teams in each division.
The Lifeline contest was inaugurated in 2007, and is held in April every year.
ACU Lifeline Programming Challenge ("The Challenge")
The Challenge is a lifeline-format ACU invitational open to high school students. This contest sprung out of the success of the lifelines in the collegiate- and corporate-level Lifeline Contest. This style gives high school students a fun, competitive opportunity to use their programming skills, while alleviating some of the frustration of the typical contest by providing coaching at critical points. The lifeline format also creates "teachable moments" for high school computer science teachers, in which their students see the application of programming tactics, and eagerly want to learn more.
The Challenge began in 2008, and is held in February every year.
