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Going for the gold
Three computer science majors are competing for a world title
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Les Miller describes the results as remarkable, considering the circumstances.
The three ISU computer science majors who performed the feat weren't expecting
to win either.
"This was the first time that Iowa State competed in this type of
programming contest," said Miller, professor and chair of the computer
science department. "We went to the competition to learn about the
contest. To win is remarkable."
The three computer science majors, Yogy Namara, a senior from Indonesia;
Stjepan Rajko, a sophomore from Croatia; and Sean Stanek, a freshman from
Des Moines, were at a definite disadvantage when they competed last November
at the International Collegiate Programming Regional Contest at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
After all, the three had never worked together as a team. They were selected
for the competition as much as for their individual performances in on-campus
programming contests designed by Namara as their willingness to go.
At the regional contest, the three jelled quickly as a team, answering
all six questions posed to them correctly. Three other of the 60 competing
teams from colleges and universities from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and portions of Canada also
got all the questions right.
The ISU team was declared the winner because they had the least amount
of penalty points assessed to them. Penalty points were given for wrong
answers and the total time it took teams to answer the questions.
The results are more astonishing when you look at the level of competition
ISU faced. The second place team, South Dakota State University, has attended
each regional competition since the contest started. This was the fourth
regional competition for one team member while the other two were in their
third years.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln regularly holds team competitions to
determine which teams will participate.
"In our case, we basically asked for volunteers," Miller said.
"But all three turned out to be great team players. Regardless of
the competition, sometimes even good people don't mesh well. But these
three naturally fit into a team framework."
After winning the regional competition, the ISU computing team will compete
in the international competition March 15-19 in Orlando, Fla. (Results
were unavailable at press time). The level of competition rises dramatically.
Teams from Harvard, Duke, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Georgia Tech and Texas,
along with other international teams, have earned the right to compete.
The international competition is designed the same as the regional contest.
But instead of six questions, the teams will be asked to answer eight
questions in a five-hour period with just one computer.
"The one computer forces you to think before you actually get on
the computer to try to solve the question," Rajko said.
The group also has developed a strategy to help them with the problems.
"At regionals, if the question was easy, then we gave it to one person
to come up with the solution," Rajko said, "and then we worked
together for the tougher questions.
"We're expecting the world championships to have tougher problems,
so we're anticipating having to work together more."
Around LAS
March 20-26, 2000
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