Washington College To Host Collegiate Computer Programming Contest, November 8

Annual Competition Fosters Next Generation of Technology Talent

Chestertown, MD, October 8, 2003 — On Saturday, November 8, Washington College will host a Mid-Atlantic regional elimination round of the 2004 Association of Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC). The contest is being organized by the College's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science under the direction of professors Louise Amick and Austin Lobo.
Washington College will field three teams of students coached by Professors Michael McLendon and Foster McGeary. They will be pitted against nine other teams from the U.S. Naval Academy, Drexel University, Rowan University, and the University of Delaware. In the contest, each three-member team is given five hours and one computer to solve eight programming problems. The problems are so challenging that getting two correct is considered to be good. Scoring is based not only on correctness but also on the number of minutes taken to devise a solution. Many teams fail to get even a single problem correct. The entire contest is conducted electronically with submissions made to a central site for independent judging. The Mid-Atlantic region with 163 teams is the largest in the United States and third largest in the world.
This is the second year for Washington College to be a regional host site, to the credit of the College's state-of-the art computing facilities. Increasing enrollments in mathematics and computer science have allowed the expansion from two teams last year to three teams this year. “While both of our teams did very well last year, we are expecting even better results this time,” said Austin Lobo, associate professor of mathematics and computer science. “We have four seasoned veterans from last year's competition who are returning to represent us.”
The nine students representing Washington College this year are Jay Van Der Wall, senior from Wilmington, DE, and double-major in mathematics and computer science; Sunipa Saha, senior from Jos, Nigeria, and double-major in biology and computer science; Walker Dowling, senior from Chestertown, MD, and major in computer science; Hanh Nguyen, senior from Hanoi, Vietnam, and major in mathematics and computer science; Amanda Feigley, senior from Quakertown, PA, and major in mathematics; David Earle, junior from Annapolis, MD, and double-major in mathematics and computer science; Christopher Hayden, junior from Owings, MD, and double-major in physics and mathematics; Stephen Reaves, sophomore from Washington, DC; and Reid Cohn, sophomore from Chesapeake City, MD.
Now in its 28th year, the ACM-ICPC competition is partly sponsored by the IBM Corporation. Over the next three months, 1,300 universities from 68 countries will compete in regional contests held around the globe. Of these, 72 teams will be selected to compete at the 2004 World Finals, to be held from March 28-April 1, 2004, in Prague, The Czech Republic.

Computer Science Program Receives Grant from National Science Foundation for Advanced Mathematical Research

Chestertown, MD, August 27, 2001 — Washington College Department of Mathematics and Computer Science has received a $30,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a collaborative project to develop a library of advanced mathematical programs. The grant is part of $280,000 in funding for a joint research project to be conducted in cooperation with the University of Delaware and North Carolina State University.

"Many researchers feel that if enough computers are unleashed on a task, they will eventually find some sort of an answer," said Austin Lobo, principal investigator and assistant professor of computer science at Washington College. "This project deals with computational tasks that are of such great magnitude, that one cannot simply wait for an answer to come--because that might take a lifetime. By developing programs using probabilistic techniques, we create software that makes intelligent guesses and reduces the time for complex calculating tasks literally from decades to days."

The goal of this project is to provide a component-based, open-source software library of advanced mathematical programs that can be used by other researchers to build and expand other mathematical computing modules. Titled "ITR/ACS: Collaborative Research-LINBOX: A Generic Library for Seminumeric Black Box Linear Algebra," the project will have applications in cryptography, data security, electrical communications, control systems and computer graphics, said Lobo. The Linbox group is composed of members from research institutions in the United States, France, and Canada and has been active for nearly three years.

"We have to prove mathematically before we begin the computations that our programs will finish the work at all and produce an answer despite their 'guesswork,' and that the answer will indeed be correct," said Lobo. "It takes years just to learn the mathematics needed to get to square one in this business."

College Programming Team Vies With The Best in Regional Collegiate Computing Competition

On Nov. 11, 2000, Washington College's first computer programming team competed in the 25th International Collegiate Programming Contest sponsored by the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM) and IBM. Vying with 137 teams from the Mid-Atlantic region, Washington College finished 38th, tying with several schools, including Duke University, University of North Carolina, and University of Delaware.

More than two thousand teams worldwide participated in thirty regional competitions of the ACM's International Collegiate Programming Contest. During the five-hour competition, teams had to design various programs, such as a word processing grammar check and an airplane collision detection system. The contest provides college students with an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen problem-solving and computing skills in a competitive, time-sensitive environment.

Washington College was represented by seniors Chris Klimas, an English major and computer science minor from Randallstown, Md.; Colleen Hick, a double major in mathematics and computer science from Levittown, Pa.; and Chris Lawrence, a computer science major and president of the Washington College Computer Club from of Narberth, Pa. The team's faculty advisor, Austin Lobo, assistant professor in mathematics and computer science says, "Though this is the first year Washington College has offered a computer science major, our students have emerged as motivated, knowledgeable, and our best and brightest are able to compete with peers from the top schools in the field."

Distinguished Computer Scientist Helps College Celebrate New Major

Chestertown, MD — Jack Minker, who helped establish the study of computer science at the University of Maryland in 1974, will speak at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 20 at Washington College. In his talk on the history and development of digital computers through the 1950s, Minker will trace the scientific advances that ledto the development of the modern electronic computer, starting with Euclid and Aristotle and including the surprising influence of the Jacquard Loom for weaving patterns in cloth. He will discuss the controversy over who developed the first digital computer, the influence of founders such as Admiral Grace Hopper and Alan Turing, and the role that computers played in code breaking during World War II. His slide-lecture is free and open to the public.

Minker appears as part of Washington College's celebration of its newly announced major in computer science, previously offered as a minor at the school. Assistant Professor Austin Lobo says, "Washington College is committed to a strong computer science major grounded in a liberal arts tradition that values the historical perspective. Dr. Minker is a recognized expert in computer science as well as an elder statesman in the field. We're proud to have him speak on campus."

Minker is professor emeritus at the University of Maryland College Park in the Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. He has written more than 160 technical articles for refereed journals, books and conferences and is considered the founder of several fields within the computer science. He is also a tireless worker for human rights.