Students participate in competitive coding club

By Taylor Green

Contributer  

For Owls, the International Collegiate Programming Contest is an unofficial competitive coding club where students gather once a week to practice their computer science programming skills in teams.

Despite the end goal being to compete in the contest, the process of improvement is valuable to their members. 

“The competition itself isn’t necessarily the focus,” the unofficial student coordinator for ICPC computer science major Jacob Stephens, a senior, said. “It’s more of the skills that you pick up through practicing for it.” 

Stephens is the main contact for ICPC and helps coordinate weekly meetings that take place Mondays from 6-8 p.m. 

Stephens was one of the first members when the university became involved with ICPC a little over two years ago with the help of the alumni coaches, Brett Jurman and JPat Cooley.  

This year, there are five teams of three students competing from the university, and the students are working hard to hone their skills. 

 Club members work together to solve various problems given to them which vary in topic between each competition. 

“We look at computer science technical problems,” Stephens said. “We focus on collaboration, problem solving skills and how to communicate your ideas.” 

Computer science major Hamza Nazim, a junior, is competing for the first time this year. 

Nazim joined ICPC in hopes of improving his coding knowledge and gaining more confidence. 

“I love the fact that we all have one computer,” Nazim said. “All three of the people have to become one person to solve one problem.” 

Members said they enjoy working alongside their group mates and other members of ICPC to figure out the problems they face. 

“We have a great group of people who all have the same passion for problem-solving and collaboration skills,” Stephens said. 

Stephens said the community they have built within ICPC is strong, and students rely on each other to push themselves toward improvement to prepare for the contest and the workforce. 

“It’s really useful for technical interviews for software companies,” Stephens said. “This is perfect practice for that and makes me feel more prepared and confident for going into the workforce.”  

Computer science major Amilcar Armmand, a senior, is also competing in the upcoming competition. Armmand said the practice problems they complete are challenging; either you will get it, or you will never get it. 

Despite the competition being spread across 80 different countries and six continents, Stephens said the university competes at a regional level, only facing competitors from Connecticut, New York and some parts of New Jersey. 

This year, despite the contest usually taking place at Columbia University, Stephens said it will be remote, and students will be competing from a classroom on campus. 

“There is more than one way to solve a problem, so hearing someone else’s input and what they would do to solve a problem and comparing it to my own is very interesting,” computer science major Miraj Jara, a senior, said. “It gives me ideas for the next time I see a problem somewhere.” 

 Computer Science Club President Jara said he is excited to compete and collaborate with his teammates. 

“That’s where all the magic happens in life,” Armmand said, “working with other people. You don’t do anything by yourself.