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Printer-Friendly ModeACM hosts annual high school competition
March 19, 2007 —
SVSU's chapter of the Association for Computational Machinery held its annual Programming Competition on Friday. The competition between Michigan high schools is run entirely by members of ACM at SVSU.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest student-run competition at SVSU," said Mark White, president of ACM. White, a six-year member of the organization, was part of a large team of students who oversaw the contest.
Twenty-six teams participated in the contest, with each team consisting of roughly one to three members each. White said that a total of over 50 students competed.
Teams are asked to solve problems using Java, Visual Basic and C++, three of the most widely used programming languages in modern computing.
"We give them twelve programming assignments, somewhere between first-year and second-year college difficulty," White explained.
According to White, some schools routinely perform well.
"Midland usually does real well," he said. "They have a lot of good teachers...they teach to a higher standard."
Teams from Midland High School took first and second in the competition. Midland High also won the event last year.
Professor Moe Bidgoli of the Department of Engineering, Science and Technology is the faculty advisor to ACM, and helped to organize and oversee the now-annual competition.
Bidgoli has been with SVSU since the 70s and has advised the ACM chapter at the University since 1987. Needless to say, technology has made some progress since then.
"I came here and we had punch-card readers," he joked.
Bidgoli was understandably proud of the students who organized the competition, many of whom he taught in class. He said that their contributions and efforts benefit everybody at the end of the day.
"They are students that go that extra mile for society," he said.
Bidgoli also oversees SVSU's participation in intercollegiate programming competitions. Students at the University have fared well in the past, although competition is stiff: since all ACM members are allowed to compete, SVSU students must out-program students from the likes of Harvard, Stanford, and even international institutions from Russia, Poland, New Zealand, and elsewhere.
"It's very tough to win worldwide," he said. "It comes down to teamwork."
SVSU placed in the top 12 percent of students worldwide in 2002 in intercollegiate competition.
White encourages anyone who is passionate about computers to see what ACM is all about for themselves, although he already knows.
"We're basically a bunch of computer geeks," he joked.
Visit acm.svsu.edu for more information. All majors are welcome.