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Westminster Math & Computer Science Department Hosts High School Programming Contest

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Posted on Monday, March 19, 2018

Seventeen teams from five high schools attended this year’s Westminster College High School Programming Contest hosted by the Mathematics and Computer Science Department and the Admissions Department. Participating schools included: Nichols School in Buffalo, NY (Coach Jason DeGroat); North Allegheny High School in Wexford, PA (Coach Laura Prosser); Seneca Valley High School in Harmony, PA (Coaches Diane Krauland and Chad Robertson); Wilmington High School in New Wilmington, PA (Coach Mary Beth Acker); and Elizabeth Forward High School in Elizabeth, PA (Coach Mary Wilson).

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

This year’s winning team was "NA2" from North Allegheny High School. Team "NA4," also from North Allegheny, came in second with “2B || !2B” from Seneca Valley High School rounding out third place. 

The programming contest was designed and operated by professor of computer science and mathematics Dr. John Bonomo. 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 also 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; St. Petersburg, Russia, June 2013; Ekaterinburg, Russia, June 2014; Marrakech, Morocco, May 2015; Phuket, Thailand, May 2016; and Beijing, China this coming April.

Bonomo was assisted by Dr. David Shaffer, Associate Professor of Computer Science, and computer science students Matt Gurneal, Aaron Signer, Philip Waddell and David Windsor.

More information about the contest can be found at http://www.westminster.edu/staff/bonomojp/HSContest/hspc.html.