As many of you are aware, SIUE usually participates in the annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, and this year will be no exception. In recent years, SIUE teams have done quite well in the "Midwest" regional contest, frequently placing teams in the top ten of the region.
The contest essentially is comprised of teams competing to code as many (successful) programs as they can in a given time frame. The program specifications (usually about 7 +/- 2) are handed out at the beginning of the contest and teams are then given 5 hours to successfully code as many solutions as they can.
Any undergraduate who has taken (or is taking) a Computer Science course can compete in these contests - whether you are a Freshman, a Senior, or somewhere in between. Teams are comprised of 3 programmers, and there is (theoretically) no limit to the number of teams any one school can send to a contest.
If you are interested, please send me e-mail (sblythe@siue.edu), and I'll include you in our pool of contestants. The contest itself will be an all-day event on Saturday, November 4; this year's contest will be held at the University of Missouri-Rolla. We will also be holding several team practice sessions between now and then to familiarize our teams with the types of program specifications they will encounter at the contest.
Please also visit http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/ for more information about the contest, or just contact me (sblythe@siue.edu).
-Dr. Blythe
I have always been very interested in these competitions. And better yet I might get a chance to give my buddy from Rolla an ego-check. :lol: I'll stop by sometime to find out more.
Scott
This is a good competition. A few years ago, Jon Birch, John Paul, and I placed first in the regionals and high overall (forget how high). So, take advantage of this situation to practice your skills against other opponents using team communication and fast thinking. Best part is that when you're finished, you'll know a lot more about your weaknesses and will be able to improve upon them for the future.
Just a quick update - the site has been changed from Missouri-Rolla to Webster University. Cuts the drive down to about 1/4 what is was (from about 125 miles each way to about 30 miles each way).
Makes things a lot less grueling.
-Dr. Blythe
QuoteA few years ago, Jon Birch, John Paul, and I placed first in the regionals and high overall (forget how high).
Actually, you guys placed fifth not first. But fifth is still good out of 109 teams. All but one of the years I competed, SIUE placed first locally (10-15 teams). But my teams never did better than 8th regionally. If you place first or second regionally, then you get to go to the big tournament.
Story about wgrim and company (http://www.cs.siue.edu/news/story.aspx?StoryID=200411060)
Story about another good finish last year (http://www.cs.siue.edu/news/story.aspx?StoryID=200511160)
P.S. Most years, SIUE beats ISU but this year ISU is holding tryouts and if my little brother (or someone who is better than him) makes the team, then you guys might be in trouble. ;-)
he can bring it (in a purely competitive manner)
Oh, I meant first at our location I guess, which I thought was the regional location. I thought that on a state level we just didn't place first. I got all that confused.
I'm in. Thanks Dr. Blythe.
What about making one of the teams an all-girls team? Girls, where are you? :-)
Hmm, an all-girl team would be a cool idea. If Hoshiko (http://caos.siue.edu/userinfo.php?uid=393) hasn't seen this thread already, I'll bring it to her attention. :-)
I'm in.
I would also like to join.
Phoenix, did you email Dr. Blythe? Who else signed up?
I may try a practice online contest Thur or Sun:
http://online-judge.uva.es/contest/
Let me know if anyone else wants to try. My online id for online judge is 18847ZK. If anyone interested, I think we could sign up as a practice team, but I'm not sure how it works.
I have twice now and not recieved any information back which is why I posted on here. If anyone knows any meeting times or snything please let me know.
Phoenix, please don't forget to e-mail me (sblythe@siue.edu), keeping in mind that I have zero idea who you are in "real life" ...
I'll be posting two practice session days and times (both sessions will be the same, so you'll only need to do one of them) here soon. I'll e-mail those times to everyone who has expressed interest also - so if you don't get the e-mail, it means you haven't contacted me yet and I don't know that your interested!
We'll have plenty more practices before we head to the contest ...
-Dr. Blythe
I plan on holding 2 practice sessions next week (9/25-9/29). If you
intend on going to this year's ACM programming contest, it would behoove
you to come to one of these practices. Both practice sessions will be
identical, so it won't help you to come to both (although you may do so
if you wish to).
Practice session I : Wednesday, September 27, 3-5PM in EB 2029.
Practice Session II: Friday, September 29, 3-5PM in EB 2029.
We'll basically be going over the contest format, what you're allowed to
bring (and not bring), what will be available at the contest, and a few
sample problems. Be sure to bring your schedule for the next 6 weeks
with you, as I would like to break us into teams and set up a weekly
practice time for each team.
Subsequent weeks will bring more practice problems for the *teams* to
work on. (It doesn't do much good to work individually, as this is a
*team* contest.)
If you can't make one of these times and you still want to be in the
contest, let me know as soon as possible!
-Dr. Blythe
5 Points to anyone who can figure out what the text in the background of this picture (http://www.cs.siue.edu/news/images/2006/2006-09-25_ACM_ICPC.png) means.
(http://www.cs.siue.edu/news/images/2006/2006-09-25_ACM_ICPC_preview.png) (http://www.cs.siue.edu/news/images/2006/2006-09-25_ACM_ICPC.png)
LOL!!! :lol:
I did The Triangle Game (http://www.ntnu.edu.tw/acm/ProblemSetArchive/B_US_MidCen/2000/Problems.pdf) and Falling Leaves (http://www.ntnu.edu.tw/acm/ProblemSetArchive/B_US_MidCen/2000/Problems.pdf) (among many others) as practice problems for the ACM Programming Contest (http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/) a few years ago. :-D
Vedy, vedy sneaky Andrew-son... vedy, vedy sneaky... :-P