Another year and another great performance by my programming students. They have already solved two problems and still have an hour left to go. Come on “Team Red C”! Hard work and dedication (we had to leave Samford at 5:30AM this morning and won’t get back until 10:30PM - 17 hours!)
Welcome to another exciting semester at Samford University! Here is a quick summary list of the exciting classes and work just around the corner!
I am in the process of giving my Intro to Computer Science exam right now with two more exams to go after this one. I thought I would take a minute to update on a number of projects in the works:
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Samford’s inaugural programming team - The Red C - 2008 Mobile, AL - The Samford University programming team placed first in the “1st timers” sub-competition at the 2008 Southeastern regional programming competition. They solved two problems quickly and had a number of solutions in the works when time was called. To put it in perspective, out of all seventy+ teams working on the 10 competition problems, the most problems solved by any team was 5. |
Update! 6:30pm 1st place! We won the “1st timers” categories because Southern Miss went on to place in the top 3 overall, which made them ineligible for our category. Way to go team!
Update! 4:30pm The live scoreboard has been frozen to increase the drama surrounding the last hour of the competition. Can UAB stay on top (at our tournament)? Can anyone unseat the current overall leader UCF? Can Samford come from behind and win the “1st timers” competition. We will know the answer to all these questions in 1 hour!
Update! 3:59pm The Southern Miss “Golden Eagles” just pulled ahead in the “1st timers” category by solving a third problem. There’s still time left for us to come back.
Update! 3:25pm Our team has solved a second problem which puts them in the lead in the “1st timers” category. Come on “Red C”!
My programming team, “The Red C” (think Moses), is competing right now as the first team ever from Samford in the ACM Southeast Regional programming competition. Check out the live scoreboard. There are six first time teams here, and the Samford team was the first of those six teams to solve a problem! Way to go Greg, Jonathan, and Bradley!!!
The competition is being held at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. Here is a topocreator map of the school with the building where the competition is being held. I am upstairs sequestered in the coaches room with a nice wireless connection. The students are right below working diligently.
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View large image with legend Created with beta version of topocreator.com |
I am coaching a team of students preparing to put their programming skills to the test in the 2008 ACM Southeast USA Regional competition and then hopefully onto the world finals in Stockholm, Sweeden. Today we solved a practice problem from the 2006 regional competition. Check out the ACM programming page for details, the problem, and the solution.
I have switched to a blog format for my entire website, so check back often for updates. The site map that you see on the left will remain relatively static, so start there if you are looking for specific information about me or my work. There is also a search box in the upper right. Try it out, type “web”, press enter, and you will see a list of pages on this site containing that keyword.
Current projects
The most recent project I have undertaken is researching the possibility of forming a non-dedicated cluster of computers for general faculty use here at Samford University. My initial findings suggest using BOINC as a platform to create a Virtual Campus Supercomputing Center. One of the challenges will be to make it as easy as possible for faculty at Samford to write programs that will take advantage of the computing power available in a Supercomputing Center. I am envisioning the creation of a website where potential programmers can fill out a form to automatically generate the required project files to convert existing C/C++ projects into BOINC compatible programs. Tips or suggestions greatly appreciated from those who have experience working in this area!
This website itself is part of an extended research project that I am undertaking to provide tools to make it easier for faculty members to maintain an up-to-date personal faculty web page and vitae.
