Miami University students are getting ready to participate in the 33rd annual Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC) Nov. 1 at the University of Cincinnati.
The event, sponsored by IBM Software Group, is designed to challenge students from all over the world to test problem-solving skills.
Miami's team is led by Michael Zmuda, associate professor of computer science and systems analysis, and the Miami's team coach of 10 years.
The team has had practices once a week every week since the start of the semester in preparation for the first round of competition.
According to Doug Heintzman, director of strategy for IBM and sponsorship executive of ICPC, the event was created 33 years ago by a group of academics who decided to bring together a field of young problem solvers.
"At the time it was roughly small, now it is an enormous and worldwide phenomenon with over 22,000 students involved," Heintzman said. "The top teams are given an invitation to go to the world finals."
According to Heintzman, this year the top 100 teams will travel to Stockholm, Sweden to experience the Swedish culture, meet with leading researchers of the computer science field and participate in a grueling five-hour long problem solving competition.
Heintzman said the teams are given 10 questions created and selected by a panel of mathematicians and computer scientists and then are asked to create software systems that are used to help solve the problems.
According to Zmuda, Miami has been participating in the contest since the mid 1980s, but hasn't yet made it to the world finals.
Heintzman said this type of competition is needed among college students today.
"(There is a) need of a new generation of innovative problem solvers that are the lifeline of the company and the field," Heintzman said.
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Heintzman also said the competition is a rich hiring ground for employers.
He added that the competition provides creative space to work on the significant challenges the world is currently facing, ones that need innovation in order to be solved.
"A lot of our students like competition," Zmuda said.
Zmuda said he had confidence that his team will be able to handle the pressure of the contest.
Zmuda also said the ICPC allows students to greatly improve as computer programmers.
Heintzman said the winners will receive cash scholarships and laptop computers, but most importantly they will receive great life experience in the field in which they hope to work.
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