Six Linfield College students participated in Battle of the Brains, a regional computer programming competition that applied knowledge to real-world situations.

The Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Contest (ICPC) Pacific Northwest Region competition took place in Eugene at the University of Oregon on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The 34th annual regional competition, sponsored by IBM, included 80 teams from colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska, Hawaii and British Columbia. Five sites simultaneously hosted the competition, testing students on computer science, math, programming, logic and problem solving skills. Twenty-two teams from eight schools in Oregon and Washington competed in Eugene in hopes of continuing to the world finals in Harbin, China, in February.

Linfield was represented by two student teams. The first team included juniors Robert Ferrese of Kingston, Wash., Sam Shryock of Salem and Erick Loden of Buffalo, Wyo. The second team included juniors Julianne Upton and Katherine Grainey, both of Salem, and senior Tamir Lkhamsuren of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Team one placed 67th with two problems solved. The team was close to solving another two problems, but ran out of time. Team two completed three questions and finished in 55th place.

For more information, contact Daniel Ford, assistant professor of computer science, at dford@linfield.edu, 503-883-2706.