UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 15, Page 7
December 14, 1995
Computer team scores among region's best

     AUD computer programming team came in second out of a field of 75
teams in a mid-Atlantic, regional computer programming contest, held
last month.
     The event was sponsored by ACM, the professional organization for
computer researchers and software developers.
      The winning team members, Terence Haddock, Geoff Pease and David
Stabosz, will participate on Feb. 17 in the international contest to
be held  in Philadelphia as part of the AMC Computing Week '96
conference. At that event, 40 top teams from the United States, Europe
and other parts of the world will compete. Last year's winning team
came from Germany.
     David Saunders, computer and information sciences, who coaches
the team, said he was pleased with its success.
     "Nearly one third of the participating teams could not solve any
of the eight problems in the contest. Delaware was leading for most of
the five-hour marathon and solved five problems, but at the last
minute, the VPI team came in with a solution for a sixth problem. The
contest is an excellent device for students to show their stuff, and
Delaware did exceptionally well," he said.
     The University was followed by Swarthmore College and Johns
Hopkins University.
     A second Delaware team, with students Dan Diamond, Tim Gion and
Marjeta Cedilnik, made a good showing as well, according to Saunders,
coming in 21st out of the 75 teams.
     Team members were chosen in October through tryouts, open to all
University students. General practice sessions were held before the
tryouts. The selected students for the regional contest had several
practice sessions, learning to work as a team, Saunders said. The
student chapter of ACM supported the UD teams by paying the entrance
fee.
     The University was one of five contest sites, which were linked
by electronic mail with the judges, who were housed at Villanova
University. Delaware's event was at the computing site in Pearson Hall
with 11 teams on location at the University.
     Ron Reisor, Network and Systems Services, Anita Hoover, User
Services, Geoff Pritchard, mathematics, and others were instrumental
in making the event a success, Saunders said.
     Team members' energy and competitive drive were maintained with
subs, soft drinks and snacks during the five-hour period they wrestled
with the programming problems, such as a cryptography problem, an army
communications problem and the "Cheapskate Painters, Inc." problem, in
which, given job specifications, they had to write a program which
would determine the exact amount of paint needed.
     The Delaware team will be busy honing its programming and
debugging strategies and skills in the next few months as it readies
for the international tournament in February, Saunders said.
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure