Travis Calder, Christoph Dittmann and Kung Chi Cinnati Loi will be competing in the annual Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals in Banff from April 6 to 10. The students advanced through both local and regional competitions to qualify for the event, which will set them against 96 other teams from around the world.

More than 300,000 students from 83 countries originally vied for a spot in the finals, and the U of S trio comprise the first team from this University to successfully complete the quest since 1996. The competition tests students on more than just computing programming skills, as many questions posed are first word problems that must be decoded before any program is written.

Christopher Dutchyn, assistant professor in Computer Science and mentor for the team, said competing in the world finals will enhance both the students’ career paths as well as the University’s reputation.

“It is very prestigious to win or do well at the world competition, because it says you have strong students and it will attract strong students to the University.”