Tuesday, April 20, 2010

SBU CIS Department Competitive Programmers Finish Second in Region

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / scsmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University’s competitive computer programming teams finished second and seventh, respectively, in a field of seventeen teams at the Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC) Central Plains Region Programming Contest held recently at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. SBU’s top finishing team consisting of Weston Herrington (FR, Carthage, MO), Jordan Hull (FR, Greenfield, MO) and Derek Tran (FR, Kansas City, MO) finished in second place, completing three problems in a cumulative time of 376 minutes. SBU’s seventh-place team consisting of Maaura Stucky (FR, Kansas City, MO), Charlie Chapman (JR, St. Louis, MO), and Jonathan Keedy (JR, Camdenton, MO) completed two problems in 152 minutes. Complete results included at end.

“The battle for the top spot ended up being between us and Northeastern Oklahoma,” said Dr. Tim DeClue, chair of the SBU Computer and Information Sciences Department. “Truman made a pretty valiant effort to keep up, but ultimately they finished almost two hours behind us. Central and UMKC both made an early run, too, but couldn’t get a successful solution in on a problem that required testing for values into the billions—they both forgot to do it and our kids and the NEO team left them in the computational dust. Northeastern was a team we hadn’t seen before, and they edged us fair and square. Still I am very proud of all of our kids—especially the three freshmen on our A team that hunted with the big dogs today. We don’t have a single senior on either team. They’ll all be back next year a year older and wiser. Four of our six students are freshmen, and the other two have some great leadership abilities. I wouldn’t want to be competing against next year. We have an opportunity to field a couple of teams that could be scary good.”
The two SBU teams are coached by SBU CIS faculty Professor Jeff Kimball and Dr. Baochuan Lu. The CCSC consists of ten regions located within the continental U.S. The Central Plains region is generally considered to consist of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Nebraska. The 2010 conference was the sixteenth annual conference. Southwest Baptist University hosted the very first Central Plains conference in 1994, and again in 2009. Programming contests have been a part of the Central Plains CCSC seven years in a row. Southwest Baptist has been the champion four of the seven years.
Finish/School Location Problems Time

1. Northeastern Oklahoma St. – A Talequah, OK 3 333
2. Southwest Baptist – A Bolivar, MO 3 376
3. Truman State University Kirksville, MO 3 564
4. University of Central Missouri – A Warrensburg, MO 2 79
5. University of Missouri-Kansas City – A Kansas City, MO 2 110
6. Northeastern Oklahoma State – B Talequah, OK 2 128
7. Southwest Baptist – B Bolivar, MO 2 152
8. Graceland University – A Lamoni, IA 2 183
9. McKendree University – A Lebanon, IL 2 227
10. Graceland University – B Lamoni, IA 2 243
11. Drury University Springfield, MO 2 251
12. University of Missouri-Kansas City – B Kansas City, MO 2 259
13. McKendree University – B Lebanon, IL 1 20
14. Park University – A Parkville, MO 1 24
15. Park University – B Parkville, MO 1 64
16. Creighton University Omaha, NE 1 85
17. University of Central Missouri – B Warrensburg, MO 1 121
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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. Since 1878, the faculty and staff have created a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. The University has been named one of America’s Best Christian Colleges® for 13 consecutive years, one of America’s 100 Best College Buys® for 14 consecutive years, and it has been named among institutions with America’s Best College Scholarships ® for the past three years by Institutional Research and Evaluation, Inc. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

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