Computer Science and Engineering

The Knapsackers@UNT programming team from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering were named winners of the IEEExtreme 2008 24-hour Programming Challenge on March 29th, 2008 after two weeks of judging to determine the winners of the March 8-9 competition. IEEE Extreme is sponsored by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an international professional society that also sponsors student branches on numerous college campuses.

This is the second year for the competition which drew 130 teams from 33 countries. The competition included 15 problems to solve, with only 1% of the teams even attempting to solve all 15 in the 24 hour period. Dr Ryan Garlick, a team coach from UNT CSE, said "We are very proud that our students are performing so well in these international competitions. It highlights the quality of our students as well as the faculty and curriculum at UNT." David Keathly, lecturer in Computer Science in Engineering and the other coach noted that "most of the members of this team, and the Texas Codeboys who will be competing next month in Budapast, Hungary, have worked very hard and long to achieve the skills needed for these victories. In many cases they are competing against international teams that include working professionals with many years of experience - which makes their victories even more impressive."

The Knapsackers@UNT are John Rizzo, Michael Mohler and Robert Burke. They have also qualified for the World Finals of the ACM International Programming Competition which this year takes place in Banff Springs, Alberta Canada in early April. From 6,700 teams representing 1,821 universities in 83 countries competing at 213 sites from September to December 2007 world-wide, one hundred teams advanced to the World Finals.

Rizzo, along with Michael Mohler and alumnus Jack Lindamood make up the Texas Codeboys who will be traveling to Budapest for the third straight year to compete in the final round of the Challenge24 International Contest. This year they placed fourth in the qualifying round and are the only USA Team to have ever competed in the final round.

Information about the IEEExtreme 2008 cane be found at
www.ieextreme.org.

Challenge24 at www.challenge24.org.

ACM Finals at icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Finals/.