Northwest computing science students competed Nov. 9 at the regional round of the International Collegiate Programming Contest at Baker University. (Submitted photo)

Four Northwest Missouri State University teams of computing science students placed in the top 10 Nov. 9 at the regional round of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

Twelve teams competed in the contest at Baker University, which was one of 15 sites hosting regional contests simultaneously.

“Team Blue Fish” won first place at the Baker site and finished 50th overall out of 170 teams competing simultaneously in the North Central North America (NCNA) region.

“Team Blue Fish” was comprised of Santhosh Kumar Bollena, Kaitlynn Carlson and Blake Newland.

“It’s not so much the competition as the preparation for it — students get practice problem-solving as they work through challenging, but entertaining, exercises,” Dr. Michael Rogers, associate professor of computer science and information systems, said. “This helps them in their chosen career, as employers are often looking for those who are good problem solvers and work well in teams, as well as life in general. Problem-solving in this context involves writing programs quickly and accurately.”

“Team Red Fish,” which placed third, consisted of Aaron Bopp, Jarren Jackson and Patrick Trani.

“Team One Fish” placed fifth and consisted of Priyanka Bodapati, Clinton Davelaar and Samuel D Eagan.

“Team Two Fish” placed sixth and consisted of Anil Bomma, Pemba Sherpa and Chetan Kudaravalli.

The regional contests comprise the opening round of the annual IBM-sponsored Association for Computing Machinery ICPC, a multi-tier, team-based, programming competition. The contest involves several tens of thousands of students and faculty in computing disciplines from more than 2,000 universities representing 91 countries on six continents. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure.