Knox Places at Computer Programming Competition

If you were writing a computer program about Knox's computer programming teams, it might go something like this:

Build bigger teams of students
Practice, practice, practice
Face harder competition than last year
Do it again next year

Knox is increasing both the size and strength of its computer programming teams, judging from participation in the latest Intercollegiate Programming contest. This was the ninth year that Knox has sent teams to the regional competition sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. Photo right: top row, coaches David Bunde, Jamie Spacco, John Dooley of the computer science faculty; seated, student team representatives Cassie Versaggi, Daniel Sands.

"Knox is in the top five liberal arts colleges in the region," said John Dooley, professor and chair of computer science.

Knox sent three teams, up from two last year, to the 2010 Mid-Central USA regional competition in November at the University of Illinois-Springfield. The regional competition is held at Springfield and eight other sites in the Midwest.

Knox teams finished 8th, 11th and 17th out of 22 teams at the UI-S competition site, which placed Knox teams 40th, 59th and 115th among the 142 teams from 64 colleges and universities in the Mid-Central region.

"This is the first time Knox has fielded three teams -- we made an excellent showing, and we're strong among the competition, who are also sending more teams," Dooley said.

"More students at the competition indicates more interest, which is good for the field of computer programming," Dooley says.  "It also means the competition is getting tougher, and the universities that have graduate programs are allowed to have more experienced graduate students on their teams."

The competition spanned five hours and nine programming problems.

The Knox Purple Team of Max Galloway-Carson '11, Daniel Sands '11, and Michael Kaminiski '11, took top honors for Knox teams, solving five of the nine problems, to finish 8th among 22 teams at their site and 40th of 142 teams in the region.

The Knox Black and Blue Team of Casey Samoore '11, Jason McGeeney '13, and Duong Bui '13, solved 4 problems to come in 11th at their site and 59th overall in the region.

The Knox Gold Team of Peter Walker '11, Cassie Versaggi '12, and Johnathan Ebbers '13, solved 3 problems and came in 17th of 22 at their site and 115th of 142 in the region.

"The students have been working hard all term, practicing every week to get ready for this contest. Our top team finished at the same place in the rankings -- 40th place -- that they did last year -- but they solved more problems  than they did last year, and the field grew from 135  last year to 142 this year. That shows you how the competition is getting fierce," Dooley said. Only two teams in the region solved all 9 problems -- the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Chicago. They advance to the World Finals at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt next March -- appropriate, given that one of this year's problems was drawn from the history of ancient Egyptian mathematics.

"All the problems were hard," said Sands, a senior computer science major from Granite City, Illinois. "I remember the problem about ancient Egyptian fractions -- I was surprised we were able to solve it."

"A lot of your success depends on how you divide your resources among the people on your team," said Sands.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 45 states and 48 countries. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.