K-State students compete in annual computer programming contest

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Source: Daniel Andresen, 785-532-6350, dan@k-state.edu
Note to editor: Joseph Lutz is a graduate of Spearville High School.
News release prepared by: Levi Wolters, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu

Thursday, December 14, 2006

K-STATE STUDENTS COMPETE IN ANNUAL COMPUTER PROGRAMMING CONTEST

MANHATTAN -- Fourteen Kansas State University students competed in the regional round of the 31st annual Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest, sponsored by IBM.

The regional, which took place on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus Nov. 11, had 12 schools competing from Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Regional competitions conducted worldwide included 6,000 university teams from 84 countries and six continents.

K-State students were split into five teams -- K-State Underground, Last Place, K-State n00bs, UBUNTU and K-State Purple -- for the regional round. K-State Underground was the university's top scorer, placing fourth out of 38 teams. The K-State teams were coached by Daniel Andresen, associate professor of computing and information sciences.

The teams were challenged to use their computer programming skills to solve complex, real-world problems under a five-hour deadline. The regional winning teams will compete in the contest's World Finals, March 12-16, 2007, in Tokyo.

K-State students -- all computer science majors, unless otherwise noted -- and their teams were:

Hank Warkentin, sophomore, Concordia, K-State Underground team; Michael Wells, junior, Great Bend, K-State n00bs team.

From Greater Kansas City: Damian Tamayo, senior in information systems, Kansas City, Kan., K-State Purple team; Ryan Evans, junior, UBUNTU team, Jeremy Mason, junior, K-State Underground team, and Rajorshi Sharmacharya, junior, UBUNTU team, all of Lenexa; Scott Smerchek, junior, UBUNTU team, and Daniel Czerniewski, freshman, K-State n00bs team, both of Overland Park; and Ryan Summerskill, senior, Shawnee, K-State Underground team.

Jack Hart, senior, Liberal, Last Place team; Jeffrey Lee, senior, K-State Purple team, and Joseph Lutz, senior, K-State Purple team, both of Manhattan; and Kenton Born, senior, Last Place team, and Michael Marlen, graduate student, Last Place team, both of Wichita.