Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Local programming

Each Fall and Winter semester at Memorial University's Computer Science Department an ACM rules programming competition is held. I've participated in these events for numerous years in various capacities, this year I wanted to boost student interest by providing some prizes. So after considering several options the first, second and third place students each received a text book on programming, and an Ubuntu mug, pen, and install disc. The remaining competitors each received an Ubuntu pen and install disc as a thank you for participating. I'd like to congratulate Chris Whalen, Tim Oram, and Megan O'Connor for their exemplary performances!


After presenting them with their prizes I took some time to discuss open source programming and getting involved early in their careers in projects such as those hosted by the Apache Software Foundation. Living in St John's, Newfoundland the opportunity to contribute to open source projects represents, in my humble opinion, the best exposure to world class development practices and technologies.

I'm looking forward to the next programming competition this Fall 2010, and seeing the competition levels increase as each semester passes.

Update: For anyone interested in reviewing the competition questions and sample solutions please visit here.

2 comments:

Adam said...

I can't see the title of Megan's book.

icbts said...

The book Megan is holding is "The Practice of Programming" by Kernighan, B.W. and Pike, R. (1999) Addison-Wesley; Reading, MA. [ISBN: 9780201615869].

There was actually a forth place prize as well, this was awarded to Robert Robere. his prize pack included the book "O'Reilly Java Pocket Guide" [ISBN 10: 0-596-51419-0], an Ubuntu pen and an Ubuntu install disc.