The Linfield College Computer Science Club recently finished among the top placers at a programing competition held Nov. 3 at the University of Portland. The competition was the 2012 Pacific Northwest regional qualifier of the International Collegiate Programming Contest.

“I think the International Collegiate Programming Contest is a wonderful experience for the computer science students here at Linfield,” sophomore Graham Romero said.

Linfield sent a total of 14 students representing five separate teams to the competition. In total, the teams representing Linfield were the best in Oregon and finished seventh regionally.

“The problems given aren’t necessarily what you’d have in real life, especially because they all have a theme. This year was “Lord of the Rings,” but they contain concepts that are very applicable in real-life situations,” Romero said.

Some of the other schools represented at the competition were Stanford University, University of British Columbia, University of California, Berkeley and University of Washington.

As an end result, Linfield teams finished second, sixth, 10th, 15th, 22nd and 23rd in the state of Oregon, giving Linfield the highest ranking from the state.

“I attended the same contest last year at University of Oregon, and ranked 60th of 94. This year my team got 33rd of 111 teams, so it’s nice to see that improvement,” Romero said. “Relative to last year, or any year we’ve participated, Linfield did much better. Our professor, Daniel Ford, definitely helped prepare us for the contest, as well as the workshop leader, senior Cody Tipton,” Romero said.

The International Collegiate Programming Contest is the largest, oldest and most prestigious programming contest in the world. In total, more than 25,000 students, representing 2,200 universities from 85 countries, located on six continents competed in regional qualifiers around the world.

In order for students to compete, they must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate school program, and either be younger than 23 or have completed less than five years of education after high school.

It goes without saying that students from the Linfield College Computer Science Club had an exceptional performance at their recent regional qualifier. Not only do their results come with bragging rights, but it also comes with the pride of achieving goals.

Madeline Bergman

Staff writer

Madeline Bergman can be reached at [email protected].