A team of Vanderbilt computer programmers received an honorable mention at the World Finals of the Association for Computer Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest last week.

Eighty-eight teams from colleges worldwide competed in the contest. Larry Dowdy, director of undergraduate studies in the electrical engineering department, said he was impressed that the team, composed entirely of sophomores, made it to the World Finals.

"On the team you're allowed to have graduate students," said Dowdy, who accompanied the team to the regional tournament. "Just making it to the World Finals is unbelievable."

Sophomores Daniel Smith, Roger Wu and Evan Mackowski competed in the sub-regional and regional tournaments. After placing second in the regional tournament, the team was invited to compete in the World Finals in Tokyo, Japan.

"It was wonderful, and the competition was very exciting," said Julie Johnson, a lecturer in electrical engineering and computer science and the coach of the team. "You wouldn't think it would be, but it was. It's just so gripping. You can't stop watching. Basically, as one judge said it, it's doing their homework in public."

The competition included teams from colleges in Russia, China and Eastern Europe. Teams have one computer and are given a set of programming challenges that they must solve in 5 hours.

"These problems could be questions like coming up with an algorithm that would solve a puzzle or game," Dowdy said. "They're hard mathematical, mind-game kind of problems, and you write computer programs to answer as efficiently as possible."
Smith said he felt his team could have done better.

"We didn't do as well as we wanted to in the contest, but we didn't embarrass the school, and it went pretty well," Smith said. "It seemed like everybody there was 22 or 23 years old, so it was a bit intimidating."

Johnson said just to solve one problem as sophomores at the World Finals is a "great thing."

"They worked well as a team, and they have two more years as a team to go back there," Johnson said. "I am really proud of the guys. They finished right in the middle of the American schools. We had a good time, a good showing, and I hope other students consider joining the team."