Competing in the ACM scholastic programming contest (abstract)

The Scholastic Programming Contest was conceived as a vehicle to showcase the talents of some of the brightest young computer scientists in the world. Its founding precept was to provide a competition that is challenging, exciting, and most of all, enjoyable for the contestants. The recent addition of the contest sponsor, AT&T EasyLink Services, has made it possible to significantly improve the quality of the contest for contestants at all levels, including the institution of a major prize structure at the Contest Finals. Many participants would agree that this has had the effect of increasing the level of competitiveness between the teams. This panel session will explore the variety of ways in which teams prepare themselves for the competition while maintaining that all-important sense of enjoyment which is at the heart of the ACM Scholastic Programming Contest. Some questions to be addressed by the panel are: How are the teams selected for the regional competition? What techniques are used to prepare those teams for the regional contest? Is preparation for the Contest Finals any different from preparing for the regionals? In what ways does teamwork play a part in the contest? What effect has lowering the size of the teams from four to three in 1991-92 had on the role of teamwork? What changes, if any, should be made in the contest competition? For instance, does the contest focus too much on “programming-in-the-small” and “quick-and-dirty programming” over current software engineering techniques? Should the contest continue emphasizing the procedure-oriented paradigm, or should other paradigms (especially object-oriented) be included in order to reflect current programming trends? This panel is a continuation of a session held at CSC '91 [1]. The panelists for this year's session will be mostly composed of advisors and competitors from the international community, reflecting the increased representation in the contest by non-USA teams (from three in 1988 to eight in 1992). Due to the timing of the regional contests, the panel participants were mostly undetermined as of press time. [1] Bagert, Donald; Chavey, Darrah; Mourey, Thomas L.; Van Brackle, David; and Werth, John. Preparing a team for the ACM Scholastic Programming Contest. Proceedings CSC '91, 5-7 March 1991, page 701.