Programming stars compete at World Finals "Battle of the Brains"
Students from surrounding colleges and universities will be coming to Abilene Christian University, Nov. 2-3, to sharpen their programming skills while competing in the world's most prestigious computer programming competition. The 32nd ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), sponsored by IBM, will gather the best and brightest computer programmers for an all-out "battle of the brains."ACU is one of four sites hosting this year’s competition in the South Central USA Regional Programming Contest. Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University and East Central University will also be sites for the competition.
Students will come to the ACU-hosted contest from Angelo State University, Hardin-Simmons University, Midwestern State University and the University of Texas at Arlington.
Teams of three students will be challenged to use their programming skills, creativity and business sense to solve complex, real world problems under a grueling five-hour deadline. This year’s regional competitions of the ICPC are expected to include 6,099 university teams from 82 countries on six continents, all vying for a spot at the Contest's World Finals. Ninety talented teams will compete for awards, prizes, scholarships, and bragging rights to the “world’s smartest trophy” April 8-12, 2008, in Banff Springs, Alberta, Canada, hosted by the University of Alberta.
"This contest is important because it allows our students to compete in their field against students from other universities, which encourages curricular and co-curricular learning," said Dr. Dwayne Towell, assistant professor of computer science at ACU. "The ACM ICPC is the world standard in programming contests. We believe this experience is so important to our students that last year we hosted an invitational contest designed to take advantage of the experience."
With the rapid pace of change in today's IT industry, integrated approaches to business and technology at the university level are essential. Through this collaboration between industry and academia, the ICPC exposes the brightest college and university information technology students around the globe to open source technologies being adopted by innovative businesses and organizations.
In an increasingly competitive global economy, the IT leaders of tomorrow will be pursuing innovations which will come from a fusion of several different disciplines at the intersection of business and technology. These innovations might include designing an instant translation device to enable people of different languages to overcome language barriers, helping commuters get to work faster through burgeoning mass transit systems or protecting consumers from theft.
"The next generation of leaders in our industry will need strong foundations in both technology and business in order to affect positive change in society," said Doug Heintzman, Director of Strategy, IBM Software Group and Sponsorship Executive. "That's why IBM is so passionate about working with universities. We understand how important it is to help students develop these skills to succeed at the next level. This competition embodies all those ideals."
IBM's sponsorship of the ACM-ICPC is just one of the company's many university-facing programs focusing on open standards skills. The IBM Academic Initiative is another, offering colleges and universities a wide range of technology benefits including free access to IBM software, discounted hardware, course materials, training and curriculum development to better educate millions of students for a more competitive IT workforce.
Results for regional competition can be found at http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/.
The school year will bring other new and expanded events for computer science students at ACU.
"In the spring, ACU plans to expand the ACU Lifeline Programming Contest and invite more universities to participate," said Towell. "The ACU Lifeline contest allows alumni from the industry to interact and compete with current students. We will also host a recruiting-oriented, high-school programming contest in the spring."
If you are a member of the media who would like more information about this release, please contact ACU's Public Relations Office or call (325) 674-2696.
