Computer Science Students to Compete in Regional ?Battle of the Brains’ this Weekend

OXFORD, Miss. – A team of three University of Mississippi
computer science majors is set to compete this weekend
(Oct. 12-13) in the 32nd International Collegiate
Programming Contest, conducted by the Association for
Computing Machinery.

Undergraduates Jason Boyd of Brookhaven and Brent Roth of
Hendersonville, Tenn., and first-year graduate student
Courtney Humphries of Tremont are to represent Ole Miss
Friday and Saturday in the ICPC Southeast Regional contest
at the University of South Alabama. The IBM-sponsored
“battle of the brains” contest also includes teams from
Auburn University and the University of South Alabama.

Other Southeast Regional competitions are to be held at the
Florida Institute of Technology and Georgia Southern
University. This year’s regionals are expected to attract
some 6,100 university teams from 82 countries on six
continents, all vying for a spot in the World Finals.

Ninety teams, all winners of regional matchups, are to
compete for awards, prizes, scholarships and bragging
rights April 8-12, 2008, in Banff Springs, Alberta, Canada.
Warsaw University of Poland won this year’s ICPC title in
Tokyo.

“The Ole Miss computer programming team has been practicing
hard for the upcoming ACM regional competition,” said team
coach Stephen Rice, assistant professor of computer and
information science. “We are looking forward to
participating in the event this year.”

Rice and Yixin Chen, assistant professor of computer and
information science, organized the Ole Miss Student
Programming Contest in September to choose this year’s
team. Fourteen students competed in the event, with the top
three winning the right to represent the university at the
regionals.

“I was on the programming team last year, and we had some
issues with communication and teamwork,” Boyd said. “This
year, we’re trying to work on a system that will allow us
to maximize our effectiveness and minimize frustration.”

Besides representing the university, the competition allows
students to prove their professional skills, Roth said.

“This competition means a lot to me, because most people
look at a computer science major’s resume trying to
ascertain if that person can program,” he said. “This
competition shows that we can program and do it very well
under pressure.”

Teams of three students will be challenged to use their
programming skills, creativity and business sense to solve
complex, real-world problems under a grueling five-hour
deadline.

“Future innovation and value creation in our industry will
come from the creativity of the next generation of
engineers and computer scientists,” said Douglas Heintzman,
director of strategy, IBM Software Group and Sponsorship
Executive of the ICPC. “It is vital that we promote and
focus on the pursuit of excellence in the field of
information technology.”

For more information, contact Rice at 662-915-5359 or
rice@cs.olemiss.edu. For more information on computer
science education at UM, go to


http://www.cs.olemiss.edu
.