Purdue Programming Team in Top Ten

11-07-2005

The three-person Purdue programming team sponsored by the Purdue ACM chapter ranked in the top ten at the ACM Programming Contest in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, November 5, 2005. Ferry Unardi, Emil Stefanov, and Hong Chen, coached by Tomek Czajka, had five hours to solve eight problems. They solved seven of the eight problems and finished 7th in a field of 113 teams.

Ranking in the contest was first based on the number of problems solved, then on time to solve each problem with incorrect submissions resulting in a 20 minute penalty. The top five teams solved all eight problems. The next three teams, including Purdue, solved seven of the eight. By finishing 2nd among their site of 22 teams, the Purdue Team received leather wheeled backpacks for their efforts.

Although this contest is called a "programming contest," it is more accurately described as a "puzzle contest." Contestants are presented with tricky problems in which the answers must be given in the form of a program. Solutions can be written in C, C++, or Java.

The competition was tough, but for much of the contest, the first-time Purdue Team was in fifth place behind two Waterloo teams and two Toronto teams. These are THE schools to beat in this region. They have had teams finish at or near the top the last several years. Having huge success in their first competition the Purdue Team is ready for the 2006 competition. They hope to have two teams compete next year, and to qualify for the international competition.