NDSU Team Places 1st at Local ICPC Competition

NDSU’s Computer Science Department hosted the International Collegiate Programming Competition Saturday, where teams solved problems in computer programs using algorithms and problem solving methods.

The ICPC is a software development competition hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery. The contestants are given different problems that must be solved using either C, C++, or Java programming languages.

The contestants must combine their logical problem solving skills with their knowledge of the syntax of the language that they choose to use.

These problems are very complex and require a great amount of teamwork and concentration. These intricate problems are solved by a team of at least three people.

NDSU had seven teams entered, which are all coached by Anne Denton, associate professor of computer science, this year.

NDSU’s team “Drop Table Teams” solved three problems which landed members, Davin Loegering, Michael Nelson and Nathan Spanier, first place in the local competition, Robert Foertsch, systems administrator computer science, said.

At the regional level, as a whole, NDSU placed 30th out of 239.

Overall, the team Inazuma 0b11 from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities took the first place honors in the region, answering seven questions correctly, Foertsch said.

“The competition tests problem solving skills in Computer Science…” Foertsch said. “All students who compete get a free year of ACM membership.”

The team who placed first in the regional completion gets to compete in the world competition in St. Petersburg, Russia.

“It’s also interesting to be running a competition at exactly the same time as 15 other Universities in the region,” stated Foertsch. “It’s just a fun way for NDSU to get involved in the region.”

The competition started back in 1970 at the Texas A&M University. What started out at just one university has spread to over thousands of colleges and universities across the nation.

“Before we started hosting a site, all the schools in the area would need to travel to another site, the closest of which is four hours away,” Foertsch said. “So in a lot of ways, it’s a service to UND and the other schools (including ourselves); more students can compete since the travel cost is so low.”

The event was sponsored by IBM and took place in the Great Room upstairs in the MU. Students from NDSU, Concordia, UND and MSUM all participated. The competition lasted from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3.