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16 Collegiate Programmers Left in TopCoder Contest

Posted by timothy on from the no-lethal-force-allowed dept.

Allen Reitz writes: "Sixteen of the top collegiate programmers in the country are left to compete in the 2002 Sun Microsystems and TopCoder Collegiate Challenge. The semi-final and final rounds will take place at MIT on April 19-20, 2002 where all 16 contestants vie for the $100,000 prize. Four regional finalists and 12 'wild cards' make up the final 16 out of 512 that were selected to compete. The four regional finalists include: Ben Wilhelm, Oberlin College; Trayton Otto Georgia Institute of Technology; Tom Sirgedas, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Dan Adkins, University of California-Berkeley. Other schools that are sending contestants include: Cal. Tech, Stanford, Univ. of Minn., Virginia Tech, MIT, Michigan Tech, Purdue and the University of Central Florida. If you live in the Boston area and are interested in viewing a programming competition, feel free to stop by the University Park Hotel at MIT on April 19th or view the finals on April 20."

1 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Fun but maybe detrimental by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Having worked in crazy startup environments where features are built, tested and launched in a week, time is very valuable.

    It's fun and challenging to code under tight time restrictions, but I wonder if this creates the wrong focus. Sure, someone might be able to code a solution in the given time, but does it encourage careful thinking? The most obvious solution will most likely be chosen to solve the problem, but what about more elegant solutions that would be easier and faster to code, but aren't obvious with 10 minutes of thought?

    I've done that before and required major refactoring. Speed is rarely a luxury in the work environment, so I guess the contest some what simulates real world environments. I don't have a solution to a better contest, but then again I don't think contests do much good in programming. In sports, competition has driven athletes to faster/greater heights, but it has also created drug abuse (riods).

    Part of me thinks a culture of impatience is partly responsible for poor/insecure software. Though one could argue, stress and pressure can also create diamonds. I don't think it's bad, since some starving student will get a nice prize to pay for college. In the end, it depends on participants.