One of only 20 teams from the United States competing in the ACM's “battle of the brains” world competition sponsored by IBM, the UD Blue team consists of seniors William Lynch, Matthew Grieder and Benjamin Karel.
The UD Blue team earned the trip to the competition by finishing second overall in the Mid-Atlantic region during ACM's regional programming contest held at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., last November.
Coached by Benjamin Breech, a doctorial candidate in the College of Arts and Sciences, and David Saunders, professor of mathematical sciences and professor and chairperson of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS), the Blue team finished first at the Chestertown site.
At the same competition, the UD Gold team of CIS seniors Joseph Rall and Magnus Jonsson and freshman Andrew D. Chester finished second at the site and 10th in the region.
The UD teams were among more than 6,700 teams representing 1,821 universities worldwide.
The competition at the University of Alberta, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, includes just over 90 teams working to solve eight complex, real-world problems--a semester's worth of curriculum--in just five hours.
Problems range from securing Internet business transactions to designing a global positioning system (GPS). The team solving the most problems correctly in the least time will garner the championship while earning scholarships, bragging rights and prizes from IBM.
Competing teams are coming from around the world, including Cairo University, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the University of Tokyo, Duke University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
According to its Web site, ACM is “an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges.”
Article by Jerry Rhodes
