Concordia students compete in regionals for the ACM International Programming Contest

Nine Concordia students on three teams showcased their computing knowledge at the regional section of the annual Association for Computing Machinery’s International Programming Contest held on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017.

The ACM North Central North America Regional Programming Contest included more than 207 teams. Of those teams, Concordia placed nineteenth, fifty-fourth and seventy-third. Of the 17 Nebraska school teams, the Concordia teams ranked third, fifth and eighth. In terms of the GPAC schools, all Concordia teams ranked higher than the other GPAC schools.

“Our teams from Concordia were competing against the top Computer Science students from other Midwest universities,” said Dr. Kent Einspahr, professor of computing science and chief information officer. “I am very proud of the students who represented Concordia. They competed very well with the other universities in the programming contest.”

The ACM ICPC looks to test a students’ problem-solving, programming and teamwork skills through a series of math, computing and logic puzzles. The number of problems solved, the time that it took, and the number of attempts all compile into the rankings. The problems are challenging as indicated by the relatively low completion rate; no team completed all 10 problems and 70 teams solved no problem.  Concordia’s three teams managed to solve four, three and two problems, respectively

The teams from Concordia included:

Jacob Henson, senior, Herrin, Ill.

Cole Wohlgemuth, senior, Alton, Iowa

Jonathon Anderson, senior, Seward, Neb.

Caleb Ristvedt, junior, Utica, Neb.

Joel Ristvedt, senior, Utica, Neb

Peter Deberny, junior, Lockport, N.Y.

Jonathan Grant, junior, Waterloo, Ill.

Meghan Woodruff, senior, High Ridge, Mo.

John Kastner, sophomore, New York, N.Y.

The top team in each region will advance to the World Finals, held in Beijing, China in April.