HPU Team Wins Prestigious Computer Programming Contest

ICPC Teams with teams with President John Gotanda, Provost Matthew Liao-Troth, coaches Dr. Curt Powley and Dr. Yi Zhu, Dean, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Dr. Brenda Jensen and Department Chair, Computer Science, Dr. Stewart Crawford

A team from Hawai‘i Pacific University recently won the Hawaii site of the 2016 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), Pacific Northwest region, on November 5.

In Division 1, the HPU team bested teams from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, UH-Hilo, and host Brigham Young University–Hawai’i. 

HPU’s winning team in Division 1, Team 00FF00 (hexadecimal for the color green), was composed of Jiru (“Jazz”) Xu, Noel Niles, and Daniel Thaarup, a visiting student from Denmark. Students solved various problems, requiring knowledge of algorithms, programming and teamwork.

HPU has now won the top spot of the Hawai‘i site seven times, more times than any other Hawai’i university since the site was created in 2003.

For Division 2 in Hawai’i, HPU took 3rd, 4th and 8th places out of 9 teams competing. One of HPU’s Div 2 teams was composed entirely of high school students from St. Andrew’s Priory school, and trained with HPU. Their team placed 3rd and was the top HPU team in Division 2.

HPU’s teams are coached by Dr. Curt Powley, assisted by Dr. Yi Zhu. According to Dr. Powley, “This contest gives students a great opportunity to elevate their programming and problem-solving skills, as well as valuable teamwork experience.” 

The Pacific Northwest contest was held simultaneously at six sites in the United States and Canada. HPU's top team ranked 18th in the region out of 77 teams in Division 1. For more about the contest, see www.acmicpc-pacnw.org. 

Division 1 Champions: Noel, Jazz and Daniel

Division 2: Dylan, Kellen and Jesse

Division 2: Kat, Candace and Brian

Division 2 (St. Andrew's Priory Students) Kelly, Kelli and Avery

Division 2 Team with President John Gotanda, Provost Matthew Liao-Troth, coaches Dr. Curt Powley and Dr. Yi Zhu, Dean, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Dr. Brenda Jensen and Department Chair, Computer Science, Dr. Stewart Crawford.

Division 1 Team Champions with President John Gotanda, Provost Matthew Liao-Troth, coaches Dr. Curt Powley and Dr. Yi Zhu, Dean, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Dr. Brenda Jensen and Department Chair, Computer Science, Dr. Stewart Crawford.

Division 2 Team with President John Gotanda, Provost Matthew Liao-Troth, coaches Dr. Curt Powley and Dr. Yi Zhu, Dean, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Dr. Brenda Jensen and Department Chair, Computer Science, Dr. Stewart Crawford.

Division 2 Team with President John Gotanda, Provost Matthew Liao-Troth, coaches Dr. Curt Powley and Dr. Yi Zhu, Dean, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Dr. Brenda Jensen and Department Chair, Computer Science, Dr. Stewart Crawford.