North Central College computer science students excel at competition

Three teams of computer science students from North Central College continued their tradition of excellence at the 2015 Associated Colleges of the Chicagoland Area (ACCA) computer programming competition held Feb. 21 at Benedictine University in Lisle.

Taking first place in the advanced division were team members Chase Smith, a senior computer science major from Aurora; Ian Braun, a junior biochemistry major from Naperville; and Brett Bush, a senior computer science major from Clarendon Hills.

Two additional teams took second and third places in the novice level of the competition. Those teams included Andy Alonso-Emmanuel, a freshman biology major from Aurora; Steven Royster, a sophomore computer science major from Rolling Meadows; Brianna Kiel, a sophomore actuarial science major from Eastlake, Ohio; Kevin Portland, a junior computer science major from Hinsdale; and Landon Petzoldt, a freshman computer science major from Frohna, Mo.

The competition includes two divisions: a novice division for students with one year of programming or less and an advanced division for all other students.

The competition requires teams of up to four students to work together on a single computer to solve as many of eight problems as possible in four hours. Teams are rated by the number of problems solved correctly and by the amount of time taken to produce solutions. To be successful, team members must be able to think quickly, work well together and possess strong problem-solving and programming skills.

Accompanying students to the event were team coaches Godfrey Muganda, professor of computer science, and Judy Walters, associate professor of computer science.

Computer science is among 55 undergraduate majors offered at North Central College. Degrees include bachelor of arts in computer science, bachelor of science in computer science, an integrated bachelor’s/master’s degree and a master of science in Web and Internet Applications. North Central College graduates enter the workforce as programmers, database designers, network administrators, Web developers and other careers.

Photo caption, bottom right, of Novice Teams: Kevin Portland '16, Andy Alonso-Emmanuel '18, Steven Royster '17, Brianna Kiel '17, Landon Petzoldt '18