YSU provides stage for programming competition

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

More than 200 students from 21 universities throughout the region will come to Youngstown State University on Friday and Saturday to participate in the International Collegiate Programming Competition.

Students will write computer programs to solve a series of seven problems, from landing aircraft safely at a busy airport to figuring out how much food you need for a walking trip across a desert. Winners advance to the world finals in Morocco in May 2015.

YSU is among four sites throughout the East Central region hosting the contest. Robert Kramer, associate professor of computer science and information systems at YSU, is the regional director, overseeing sites at YSU, University of Cincinnati, Grand Valley State University (Michigan) and the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada). Robert Gilliland, instructor of CSIS at YSU, is the YSU site director.

Among the schools represented at the YSU contest are Carnegie Mellon University, Allegheny College, Cleveland State, College of Wooster, Duquesne University, Edinboro State University, Penn State, the University of Toledo and the University of Pittsburgh.

The contest is sponsored by IBM. Each three-student team has access to one computer workstation, and is given (on paper) a set of independent problems to solve.

Each solution is a program, composed by the team at the workstation.

The YSU event is in Meshel Hall, with registration Friday afternoon and evening.

The actual contest will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in Meshel Hall, with an awards banquet at 4 p.m. in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus.