The Linfield College Computer Science Club finished among top teams at a recent programming competition, the 2012 Pacific Northwest regional qualifier of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (PacNW ICPC).The contest was held Nov. 3 at six locations.
Five Linfield teams, a total of 14 students, competed at the regional qualifier event at the University of Portland. Collectively, Linfield’s teams were the best in Oregon and ranked seventh overall regionally.
Linfield’s Cybernetic Dinosaurs – made up of junior Guy Neill of Clarkston, Wash., senior Rebecca Coffelt of McMinnville and sophomore Graham Romero of Hood River – placed second in Oregon and 33rd in the Pacific Northwest. They competed against teams from Stanford, University of British Columbia, University of California, Berkeley and University of Washington, among others.
Other Linfield teams placed sixth, 10th, 15th and 22nd out of 23 teams in Oregon. Also competing were senior Jordan Bamber of McMinnville; junior Michelle Kawachi of Hood River; junior Nate Mills of Salem; sophomore Joseph Montaño of Ellensburg, Wash.; freshman Zachary Munyon of McMinnville; junior Jeffrey Murphy of Pendleton; senior Thomas Nast of Seattle, Wash.; senior Jacob Olson of Milwaukie; junior Nicole Paulachak of Hilo, Hawaii; senior Cody Tipton of North Bend, Wash.; and senior Daniel Woolley of Garibaldi.
ICPC is the oldest, largest and most prestigious programming contest in the world, according to Daniel Ford, club advisor and Linfield assistant professor of computer science. Over 25,000 students from 2,200 universities in 85 countries competed in regional qualifiers. Competitors must be undergraduate or graduate students and either younger than 23 or have completed less than five years of post-secondary school.
