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Lafayette won the University of Virginia site competition this month at the annual Association of Computing Machinery Mid-Atlantic Programming Contest.
Overall, the College finished fifth among 73 institutions competing at nine sites – just one place short of Johns Hopkins and advancement to the world finals.
In a total field of 162 teams, a group of computer science majors finished eighth: Kojo Adams ’04 (Accra, Ghana), Peter Zsoldos ’06 (Budapest, Hungary), and Mayank Lahiri ’05 (Muscat, Oman).
A second team took 11th place: computer science majors Joseph Crobak ’06 (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) and Stephen Kelley ’05 (Battle Creek, Mich.), and Marquis Scholar Zach Reiter ’07 (Easton, Pa.).
A third squad finished in 26th place: electrical and computer engineering majors Farhan Ahmed ’05 (Utter Pradesh, India) and Oliver Bowen ’05 (Johannesburg, South Africa), and Konstantinos Bousmalis ’05 (Thessaloniki, Greece), who is pursuing a B.S. degree in computer science and B.A. degree in mathematics.
Each team shared one terminal and had five hours to solve as many problems as possible. Team adviser Jonathan Berry, associate professor of computer science, is encouraged by the “fantastic performances” and the fact that eight of the nine competitors will return next year.
“This result shows Lafayette at its best,” he says. “Our computer science program only graduates 10 to 15 students per year on average, compared to the dozens and even hundreds graduated by the elite research universities we were challenging. The fact that such a small institution was able to claim two of the top 11 spots in such a large competition really opened some eyes around the region.”
Last year, two Lafayette squads placed in the top 20 percent of more than 140 entries.
The bachelor of science program in computer science received accreditation this year from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), confirming its standing in the upper echelon of computer science programs in the country. According to figures released by ABET in 2002, only three liberal arts colleges in the United States offered accredited computer science programs.
For the past two years, a Lafayette student has been among the few in the nation to receive a Microsoft Scholarship Award, earning recognition as one of the very top computer science students in the United States.