Eighteen local high school students competed in University of West Florida's first annual High School Programming Contest, May12, 2007 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Students competed in one of two categories: C++/Java and HTML.
Three high schools in the area competed: West Florida High School, Washington High School and Northview High School. Nine teams participated under
the eyes of the judges from the CS department and the UPE honor society.
The competition was tight – tension showing up in the contestant's faces waiting for the tests to succeed or fail. Husna Abubakr, Robin McCoe and Sandra Kleine
seem to like what they saw.
In almost every kind of activity involving computers, pizza is a must – even if you cannot eat or drink in the computer labs (Cheese and tuna in the keyboard? Not good...). Porky's Pizza donated a huge
stack of pizzas for our hungry contestants and judges.
Contestants could (and would) use references while writing programs. It generally helps to avoid silly mistakes and is always a reliable way to become totally confused, especially
under time pressure.
C++ and Java programmers had to solve 12 problems of increasing difficulty in a matter of four hours. It's not only skills that decide in the end, but
also nerves and sometimes even a bit of luck – chasing down a simple typo can take much too long, if you're under stress.
HTML wizards just had to complete five tasks – ranging from a relatively simple web page with little content to a free-form design with
little or no specifications.
The judges were always around to look at results and maybe help with some ideas – but generally the competitors worked on their own.
As the submission deadline crawls closer, the tension in the room increases. Contestants become hectic, the light chatter subsides. Only the judges keep calm –
easy to do when it's not your achievements that will be judged (at least not today).
One of the reasons, of course, were the prizes – donated by the CS Department, the UWF bookstore,
WUWF and UWF Admissions.
After the last moments of the contest passed, it's time to relax and to evaluate your performance. Some teams are not overly happy with themselves, some
consider it well done. We'll see in some moments.
Results will be explained to the judges who then excuse themselves for the final deliberations. Ultimately, Joseph Jackson and Chris Padden of West Florida High
won in the C++/Java category.
Cassidy Smith and Haley Wentowski, also of West Florida High School, took 1st place in the HTML category. All in all some narrow decisions, some tension
and a lot of fun. So watch the news page for the announcement of the next High School Programming Contest!
