Westminster Mathematics and Computer Science Departments Hosts High School Programming Competition

Eighteen teams from four high schools attended this year’s Westminster College High School Programming Contest hosted by the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, in conjunction with the college Admissions Department, on Monday, March 13, 2017. Participating schools included: Nichols School in Buffalo, NY (coached by Jason DeGroat); North Allegheny High School in Wexford, PA (coached by Laura Prosser); Seneca Valley High School in Harmony, PA (Coached by Diane Krauland and Chad Robertson); and Wilmington Area High School, in New Wilmington, PA (coached by Mary Beth Acker).

The teams, consisting of 3 to 4 high school students each, worked for two and a half hours on six computer programming problems. Students submitted solutions and received feedback from the judges electronically, while an electronic score sheet displayed updated results throughout the contest. Scoring for each problem was based on the time since the beginning of the contest as well as the number of incorrect submissions.

This year’s winning team was “NA1” from North Allegheny High School in Wexford, PA.
“2b || !2b” from Seneca Valley High School took second place and third place was awarded to “NA 3” from North Allegheny High School.

Westminster faculty member, Dr. John Bonomo, designed and ran the contest. Dr. Bonomo is an active organizer and problem contributor to local, regional, and international programming contests and has been Head Judge for the ACM East Regional Programming Contest since 2000. He has served as Head Judge and problem contributor for the International Collegiate Programming Competition for the past 14 years, including Stockholm, Sweden in April, 2009; Harbin, China in February, 2010; Orlando, FL in May, 2011; Warsaw, Poland, May 2012; St. Petersburg, Russia, June 2013; Ekaterinburg, Russia, June 2014; Marrakech, Morocco, May 2015; and Phuket, Thailand, May 2016.

Dr. Bonomo was assisted by Dr. David Shaffer, associate professor of computer science, and computer science students Trevor Arrigoni, Aaron Signer and David Windsor. More information about the contest can be found at here.

For more information, contact Bonomo at bonomojp@westminster.edu.

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