Computer Programming Team 2008

Two teams of computer science students from Knox College competed recently in the 2008 Intercollegiate Programming Competition, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. The event was held in November at the University of Illinois - Springfield.

The Knox Gold Team -- made up of seniors Jehan Lala of Mumbai, India; Alex Lindsay of Benicia, California; and Chi Zhang of Shenyang, China -- finished 3rd among the 17 teams that competed at Springfield. The Knox Gold Team also placed 24th overall, out of 136 teams from 68 colleges and universities in the Mid-Central USA region, which includes Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

The Knox Purple Team -- seniors Andrew Sheehan of Flossmorr, Ilinois; Alex Nimmer of Luxemburg, Wiskconsin; and Andrew Hickey of Galesburg -- finished 6th among the 17 teams that competed at Springfield and in 68th place overall in the 136-team regional standings.

The five-hour competition consisted of eight programming problems in topics that included cryptography and finding pathways through a maze. The Knox Gold Team finished four problems, and the Purple Team finished three problems.

"This is a great showing -- Knox was one of the top two liberal arts colleges in the region," said John Dooley, professor and chair of computer science at Knox. "It continues our tradition of fielding very strong teams in this contest." The Knox students are coached by Dooley and assistant professors Don Blaheta and David Bunde.

"The competition this year was fierce, and even the winning teams were able to solve only six of the eight problems," Dooley said. Final standings were determined both by the number of problems solved and the time required to solve the problems.

Teams from Washington University and the University of Chicago advance to the World Finals in Stockholm, Sweden, next April.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 48 states and 42 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.