UNews - Howard Cheng

U of L computing team captures fifth place in programming contest

caroline.zentner — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 18:08:31 +0000

The top ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge team took fifth place in the recent Rocky Mountain Regional Programming Contest.

Josip Smolcic (left) and Joshua Swidinsky (right), members of the U of L's top team, flank their coach, Dr. Howard Cheng.

“Our top team solved the same number of problems as the top two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta teams and the top ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary team, only losing to the other Alberta schools by penalty minutes,” says Dr. Howard Cheng, team coach and a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. “We were certainly competitive against the other Alberta schools, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan and a number of larger American schools.”

The contest drew 73 teams from schools as far north as Edmonton and as far south as Arizona and New Mexico. The U of L entered four teams in total, with the remaining three teams performing well, despite it being the first competition for most of the team members.

The U of L top team, composed of Roderick MacCrimmon, who’s studying physics and computer science, and Josip Smolcic and Joshua Swidinsky, both fourth-year mathematics and computer science students, and other participants met regularly after classes and on weekends in the run up to the contest. They practiced on previous contest questions and attended special lectures where Cheng shared various strategies for solving problems.

At the competition, teams were given one computer and 11 real-world problems of varying difficulty. They were not allowed to communicate with their coach. In one problem, teams worked with a large dictionary of words and had to develop a program that could detect all typos where one letter of a word was missing.

“The program has to correctly give the answers in a few seconds so, if they’re not careful in how they do things, they might be able to write a program that’s not going to run in time and that would be considered incorrect. They must not only have a solution that’s correct in all the different cases, but also fast,” says Cheng.

Participating in such competitions gives students the chance to apply their learning to realistic problems and integrate their knowledge. Because each problem has to be solved correctly for the team to earn any points, students also learn to pay attention to all the details, think critically and proceed carefully.

“I had a lot of fun and I met a lot of new people,” says Smolcic. “I always liked puzzles and problem solving and you don’t get a lot of that in some courses. In a competition like this, you don’t know what’s going to be asked. You really have to think about it; it’s not so much about memorizing. I enjoy that a lot.”

“Besides the practical knowledge, I’ve learned interview skills, especially if they ask you to do a challenge during an interview and ask you to solve a problem they’ve had before. Knowing how to think fast definitely helps,” says Swidinsky.

Cheng explains many high-tech companies like Google and Facebook present candidates with similar problems during an interview to gauge their ability to solve real problems. Whether they are considering their eventual job prospects or not, both Smolcic and Swidinsky participate not only because it adds to their resumés but for the love of the challenge.

“I do it for fun and I would tell other students to try it to see if they liked it,” says Smolcic. “I had no idea such a thing existed until I got here and Howard asked me to compete.”

“I usually find if I get a super hard problem solved, it just feels really good,” says Swidinsky. “It’s definitely a confidence booster.”

The second U of L team, composed of Steven Deutekom, Liam King and Dustin Ward, finished in 26th place. The third team, with team members Dallan Atwood, Austen Oviatt and Mathew Richards, finished 60th and the final U of L team, Blake McLachlin, Amanda Munden and Ryan Pederson, came in 66th place.

“Considering eight out of 12 participants were competing for the first time, these results are excellent and show much promise for future competitions,” says Cheng. "We are grateful for the support we received from Alberta Innovates because our students gain valuable experience by attending these competitions."

Full results can be found online at Rocky Mountain Regional Contest.

Based on their performance in the regional contest, the U of L team has been invited to compete in the North American Championship in Atlanta, Georgia from February 19 to 23, 2020. They will competing against more than 50 other teams to secure a spot at the world finals.

U of L programmers lead Canadian schools at Rocky Mountain Regional

trevor.kenney — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:28:06 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge student programmers earned the highest finish of all Canadian universities, placing fourth overall, at the 2015 ACM Rocky Mountain Regional Programming Contest hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta recently.

U of L Team 1, consisting of Kai Fender, Brandon Fuller and Lukas Grasse, solved seven of 11 total problems with 999 penalty minutes to earn the top spot among Canadian schools. ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary 3 was second amongst Canadian entries and fifth overall, while the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan had teams that ranked eighth and ninth overall in the competition.

“Basically, their solutions have to be in the form of computer programs that will run and produce the correct answers,” says Dr. Howard Cheng, associate professor of mathematics and computer science and the group’s coach. “For example, one of the easier problems they solved was to write a computer program that will read a recipe for a certain number of portions, and scale all the ingredients to some desired number of portions. A harder problem was to write a program that will read a map of a scavenger hunt and the values of each item in the hunt, then find a way to achieve the maximum value and still finish the hunt in time.”

Cheng says a wide cross-section of students take part in the contest, and all reap the rewards of the experience.

“I have students who are not in math and computer science at all. Some have just taken some programming classes and enjoyed it, and decided to try out for this,” he says. “The skills they get are general problem solving skills, as well as the ability to quickly turn a conceptual solution into a computer program that works correctly and efficiently. These skills are commonly sought after by high-tech companies, so they are increasingly using these types of problems/puzzles in their job interviews.”

A total of 52 teams were entered in the competition from throughout Western Canada and the western United States, with ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Utah, Colorado School of Mines and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Arizona finishing first through third respectively. Both Utah and Colorado solved eight problems, while Arizona solved seven but had less penalty minutes, 823, than the U of L’s top team.

In all, the U of L entered four teams with all four finishing in the upper half of the competition.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge 2, with team members Lindsay Ablonczy, Matt Basaraba and Stephanie McIntyre, placed 14th overall (five solved, 555 penalty minutes), while U of L 3, with Brad Melchin, Julius Moore and Soraj Seyed Mahmoud, placed 20th (four solved, 205 penalty) and U of L 4, consisting of Lyle Snelgrove, Marko Ilievski and Justin Werre, was 21st overall (four solved, 341 penalty).

To view full results, visit the competition website.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ celebrates medal winners at Spring 2015 Convocation

trevor.kenney — Thu, 28 May 2015 17:23:21 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge celebrates the achievements of its newest graduates at the 2015 Spring Convocation, May 28 and 29, in the 1st Choice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness gymnasium.

Distinguishing themselves among the many outstanding graduates are the U of L’s medal winners for 2015.

Distinguishing themselves among the many outstanding graduates are the U of L’s medal winners for 2015. They are as follows:

Gold Medal of the Governor General – Jenni Karl
Jenni Karl was born in Lethbridge and raised in the small farming community of Foremost, Alta. After high school she pursued her BSc in Neuroscience at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge where she joined Dr. Ian Whishaw’s laboratory to study motor behaviour in a rodent model of Huntington’s disease. After working for one year as a research assistant in Melbourne Australia, Jenni returned to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and Dr. Whishaw’s laboratory to complete her MSc, and PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience. Her research is directed at understanding how the human brain generates the skilled hand and mouth movements that we use to grasp and manipulate objects. She is especially interested in how these movements and their underlying neural substrates arose through evolution, are established during development, and break down in various neurological disorders. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Western ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in London, Ontario.

Silver Medal of the Governor General – Douglas Turnbull

School of Graduate Studies Medal of Merit, Master of Science – Mohammad Akbari
Thesis: claVision: Visual Automatic Piano Music Transcription
Mohammad Akbari was born and grew up in Abadeh, Fars, Iran. He began his Masters in Computer Science at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in 2013 under the supervision of Dr. Howard Cheng. Also a musician, Akbari did research in an interdisciplinary field in computer science and music, which resulted in developing an innovative system named claVision for visual piano music transcription. Winning the 2014 Canadian Microsoft Imagine Cup Innovation Competition, filing a patent application for claVision and incorporating claVision Inc. are other achievements during his master studies. He is currently a PhD student in Engineering Science at Simon Fraser ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

School of Graduate Studies Medal of Merit, Master of Arts – Ann Holden
Thesis: Home and Native Land: How the Eeyouch in Quebec and the Sami in Norway Used Hydropower Developments to Democratize Legislation

School of Graduate Studies Medal of Merit, Master of Fine Arts – Christine Clark
Thesis: Here | Now | Look | See: Information Visualizations of Recent Climate Records in Alberta
Christine Clark grew up in Cochrane, Alta. and came to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in 2012 for the Masters of Fine Arts - New Media program. Her graduate research focused in the design of climate change data visualizations and design/science collaboration. Christine plans to continue collaborating with scientists, artists, research groups and non-profits as a graphic designer, data visualizer and new media strategist.

School of Graduate Studies Medal of Merit, Master of Counseling – Bethany Mills
Project: Increasing Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Focus on Wellness and Process
Bethany Mills authored an original group counselling (psychoeducational) program to improve self-esteem in adolescents. Bethany developed a targeted and very implementable program and is noted as an emerging academic with potential publications on the horizon.

School of Graduate Studies Medal of Merit, Doctor of Philosophy – Corinne Sidler
Thesis: A Role for Epigenetics in Aging and the Age-Dependent Response to Ionizing Radiation
Corinne Sidler’s research compares the ability of animal and plant models to repair DNA damage. Her PhD work has resulted in five publications thus far in highly ranked journals, with additional publications in their final stages. Corinne received several distinguished awards and prizes during her tenure as a PhD student. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Biochemistry, in ETH Zürich Switzerland.

Faculty of Arts & Science Gold Medal (Arts) – Maxime Chambers-Dumont
Max Chambers-Dumont's academic performance as a philosophy major with a minor in political science has been outstanding. He has served as a research assistant to two of his philosophy professors on issues of sustainable energy and climate change – an experience which has informed his undergraduate honours thesis on distributive justice and climate change.

Faculty of Arts & Science Gold Medal (Science) – Samuel Woodman
Samuel Woodman completed an honours thesis in conjunction with a degree in environmental science. Since the age of 16, he has worked as a research assistant in four different labs at the U of L. His research interests include plant physiology and adaptation, behavioural toxicology, parasitology and scanning electron microscopy. Following graduation, Sam will be working towards publishing papers associated with his research as well as starting new research projects in advance of beginning his PhD studies abroad.

Faculty of Education Gold Medal - Julia Vandezande
Julia Vandezande completed a double major in biology and earth and atmospheric sciences from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta before deciding to go into teaching and enrolling at the U of L. She completed a Bachelor of Education majoring in Science Education, achieving the highest final academic standing in the Faculty of Education.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association William Aberhart Gold Medal in Education – Emily Hildenbrandt
Emily Hildenbrandt grew up in Calgary and completed her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. Emily decided to pursue an education degree at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and is commended for her amazing work ethic, strong classroom management skills and an ability to engage in thorough and thoughtful instructional planning. She is currently working at a middle school in Calgary.

Faculty of Fine Arts Gold Medal – Camille Rogers
Camille Rogers has been immersed in music since she was born. After discovering her love of performing while she was in high school at Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, she went on to study voice at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. During her studies, Camille has had the privilege of singing leading roles in several operas, including Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, all with the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra. Camille has been accepted to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto Faculty of Music where she will pursue a Master of Music in Opera Performance and is the recipient of the prestigious province of Alberta Heritage Fund Arts Graduate Scholarship valued at $15,000.

Faculty of Health Sciences Gold Medal – Arron Kardolus-Wilson
Arron Kardolus-Wilson is a dedicated and engaged learner who is committed to community projects and marginalized populations. Arron's academic work consistently exceeded expectations, and integrated critical thinking with thoughtfulness and creativity.

Faculty of Management Gold Medal – Carmen Greeff
Carmen Greeff has been an exceptional student, earning a Bachelor of Management with a major in accounting. Due to her outstanding academic achievements she has won several academic scholarships. Along with a rigorous program of studies, Carmen has worked part-time, volunteered and is an accomplished pianist. Carmen is currently studying in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan Master of Professional Accounting program.

Programmers earn third-place finish at regional contest

trevor.kenney — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 23:29:12 +0000

A third-place finish led the way for a quartet of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge student teams that participated in the Rocky Mountain Regional Contest of the 2014 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest recently.

The U of L sent four teams to the 53-team competition, with the group of Kai Fender, Brandon Fuller and Camara Lerner grabbing third place overall. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta finished first and second respectively. Other teams represented Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Eastern Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Saskatchewan and New Mexico.

“The students have done a tremendous amount of preparation for this competition,” says ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge associate professor of mathematics and computer science Dr. Howard Cheng, the team coach. “To get ready for this, some of the students were putting in eight hours per week under actual contest conditions.”

Students are given a series of complex, real-world problems that they must solve over a five-hour time period. Competitors race against the clock, and each other, in a battle of strategy, logic and mental endurance. Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds and write programs that solve the problems under the intense scrutiny of expert judges. For a well-versed computer science student, some of the problems require precision only. Others require a knowledge and understanding of advanced algorithms. Still others are simply too hard to solve – except, of course, for the world’s brightest problem-solvers.

The past two years saw a U of L team qualify for the world finals, and while this group fell just shy of making it to the international stage, Cheng is excited about their prospects moving forward.

“We had some of our senior students move on after last year, so we’re in a bit of a rebuilding phase,” says Cheng. “What was really exciting was that through this contest, we attracted interest from a number of high profile companies looking to recruit students. These events are excellent career-building opportunities for our students.”

The u of L’s other teams included the group of Lindsay Ablonczy, Chris Thomas and Justin Were (15th place); Matt Basaraba, Lukas Grasse and Marko Ilievski (19th place); and Brandon Robertson, Soraj Seyed Mahmoud and Zackery Shortt (36th place).

Microsoft Imagine Cup experience opening doors for U of L students

trevor.kenney — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:46:33 +0000

They didn’t get a meeting with Bill Gates, but what Team claVision did bring away from the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition may prove to be much more valuable.

Team claVision, consisting of Hossein Naseri, left, Mohammad Akbari and mentor Dr. Howard Cheng, are preparing to go to market with their revolutionary software.

Mohammad Akbari and Hossein Naseri, under the supervision of mentor Dr. Howard Cheng of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, were the Canadian representatives and one of just 11 teams to qualify for the World Finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition in July. And while their innovative software program that utilizes video to capture a person’s hands as they play piano and converts it into sheet music did not garner the championship prize, it certainly earned attention from some key contacts – which bodes well for its future commercial development.

“We had some very successful demonstration sessions and our technology impressed many people, including professionals as well as reporters in both computer- and music-related industries,” says Akbari, who started the project as his master’s thesis and through the competition, was able to turn theory into practice and create a usable and marketable product. “I think getting familiar with the potential market of our product and making a good number of contacts are the main positives that we took away from this competition.”

Those in the music industry quickly understood the potential practical applications of Team claVision’s software product. Akbari says the project itself evolved throughout the various stages of the competition as the team advanced to the World Finals.

“In terms of the technical side, we have significantly improved the accuracy, speed and compatibility of our software under different conditions. In addition, based on the judges’ feedback from the previous rounds, as well as the useful tips from different professionals, we worked on the marketing side of the product to provide a feasible business plan to convey the target market of our software,” says Akbari. “Currently, we are about to start our own company to get our product to the market as soon as possible. It was really great to attract professionals such as Bill Buxton (prominent computer scientist, designer and principal researcher at Microsoft Research) to our project. We are now keeping in touch with many of them to consider their useful advice and experience to get our project to the market and achieve our goals much faster.”

That a pure research project and master’s thesis could so readily translate to a marketable product is testament to the experiential learning opportunities available to U of L students.

“It was good to see that this work was appreciated not just by ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ but by practitioners in the music and computer industry as well,” says Cheng, who has worked to assist a number of students in competitions such as Imagine Cup. “I think the U of L is unique in that, despite our size compared to the other big universities, we often perform very well in these competitions. In addition to being the Canadian representative at the Microsoft Imagine Cup, we were one of only two Canadian universities to advance to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals. I really believe that our smaller program allows faculty to have a more personal approach to encourage our top students to participate in these competitions. Having our students showcase their talents on the world stage is something that I am quite proud of.”

As for Akbari and Naseri, Imagine Cup has opened up a host of opportunities.

“There is a huge potential market for our novel technology,” says Akbari. “We are very interested in utilizing this technology in order to develop different software products based on a variety of applications, both professional and educational.”

Team claVision advances to World Finals of Microsoft Imagine Cup

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:50:40 +0000

UPDATE: Team claVision did not garner a top award at the Imagine Cup competition in July but was able to make numerous contacts with members of the music and recording industry for possible further developments of their product.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Team claVision is off to the World Finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition, earning a trip to Seattle, WA at the end of July with the opportunity to win $50,000 and a meeting with Bill Gates.

Students Mohammad Akbari (seated) and Hossein Naseri have taken claVision to the World Finals of the Mircosoft Imagine Cup competition.

Master’s students, Mohammad Akbari (computer science) and Hossein Naseri (physics), along with mentor Dr. Howard Cheng of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, advanced through the World Semifinals round and are one of 11 teams in the Innovation category, and 35 teams worldwide, to make it to the final stage.

“It’s very exciting to make it this far and to be the only Canadian entry to get to the World Finals,” says Cheng.

The team’s project is a software program that utilizes a video camera mounted on a piano that captures a person’s hands as they play the instrument. It then converts the notes being played into sheet music.

“The idea was inspired by Beethoven,” explains Akbari, who began working on the project as part of his master’s thesis. “By the last decade of his life, he was almost totally deaf, forcing him to rely on the visual relationship between his fingers and the piano keys. claVision simulates what a deaf musician like Beethoven does.”

The practical applications of the software are many as it can be used on any kind of musical keyboard and is particularly useful as an educational aid for students learning to play piano.

Since winning the Imagine Cup Canada portion of the event and advancing to the World Semifinal stage, the team had to prepare a business plan for its product, create a 10-minute video presentation, further develop and test the software and provide an instruction manual for its use.

“When we go to Seattle, we’ll be expected to present a live, 10-minute pitch and the judges will perform hands-on testing of the software,” says Cheng. “As well, there will be a day when the public gets an opportunity to test all of the products, so we have a lot of work to do to make sure our software can withstand that scrutiny.”

The top three teams in each of the Games, Innovation and World Citizenship categories receive cash prizes, including $50,000 for first place, $10,000 for second and $5,000 for third.

To learn more about Team claVision’s project, visit the Imagine Cup website here.

Master's students win Innovation competition at Microsoft's Imagine Cup Canada

trevor.kenney — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:48:13 +0000

A team of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master’s students is one step closer to winning $50,000 and a meeting with Bill Gates after claiming the Innovation category of the Imagine Cup Canada competition organized by Microsoft.

Mohammad Akbari, seated, and Hossein Naseri are looking to make the world finals of the Imagine Cup competition.

Students Mohammad Akbari (computer science) and Hossein Naseri (physics), along with mentor Dr. Howard Cheng of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, make up team claVision. Their project has created a new way to solve an old problem – how to transcribe piano music.

“Incredible, world-changing software innovations often come from students,” says Microsoft. “Social networks, music services, digital photography apps, gadgets and robotics – the list goes on. In the Innovation category we are looking for the next big thing.”

That thing just might be a software program (Visual Automatic Music Transcription of Piano) developed by claVision that utilizes a video camera mounted on a piano that captures a person’s hands as they play the instrument. It then converts the notes being played into sheet music.

“Mohammad has been working on this project as part of his master’s thesis project under my supervision,” says Cheng. “The big difference between this work and existing products is that this program can be used on any standard piano or electronic keyboard. The music is detected by ‘watching’ the pianist during the performance using video analysis algorithms. Other products require the use of a special electronic keyboard that transmits the keys pressed to a computer.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge team is one of three winners from the first round of competition in Imagine Cup Canada, and will now challenge winners from the Games category (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary) and World Citizenship category (Marianopolis College) for the right to represent Canada at the 2014 Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle, Wash. in July 2014. There, teams will compete for the coveted Imagine Cup trophy, up to $50,000 USD and the opportunity to meet Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

“The team now has a chance to improve upon their software, as well as submit a project proposal and video presentation to further impress the judges,” says Cheng. “The project will be graded on technical merits as well as other criteria such as innovation and marketability. It’s almost like going into a Dragon’s Den presentation!”

Microsoft Imagine Cup is in its 12th year and is a competition that invites students to use technology to do amazing things.

To view a video demonstration of claVision’s program, click here.

Programming a bright future

david.kirby — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 15:33:39 +0000

It’s not every day that you avoid being eaten by digital zombies. But a team of U of L students has proven it’s just the way to earn a second-place finish at an international programming competition.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s programming contest team participated for the first time in the prestigious annual world finals of the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Sponsored by IBM, the competition was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, last summer.

The team, made up of Hugh Ramp (BSc ’13), who was a fourth-year physics student at the time, Christopher Martin, a fourth-year computer science student, Darcy Best (BSc ’11), a second-year MSc mathematics student, and coaches Dr. Howard Cheng (mathematics and computer science) and Dr. Kevin Grant (mathematics and computer science), took second prize in the open challenge competition that required students to write an artificial intelligence program that would successfully play a zombie-filled video game on the team’s behalf.

Darcy Best (BSc ’11), front, Hugh Ramp (BSc ’13), left, and Chris Martin, right, are programming their way to the top.

The challenge was part of a larger competition in which nearly 30,000 students from around the world participated in regional contests, solving several complex computing problems within a gruelling, five-hour deadline.

In the end, among the 120 teams that advanced to the world finals, the U of L students placed third among the Canadian competitors in the main event, 12th out of 23 North American teams and 80th overall.

The competition, says Cheng, equips students for the real-world demands of computing. “You must work together under intense time constraints. There’s no room for any failure,” he says. What’s more, says Martin, preparing for the competition is often just as challenging as the contest. U of L students spent 15 to 20 hours a week – on top of their regular studies – practising sample computing problems. “The more time you put in, the better you will do,” he says.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Best. “You have to learn to use new algorithms that aren’t taught in your courses. As a result, my coding skills have gone through the roof.” Those abilities, he says, have given him an advantage over his classmates, who often must invest considerable time becoming proficient at writing computer programs.

Best, however, isn’t the only one whose ICPC experience has complemented his education. Teammate Ramp, for instance, has gone on to pursue graduate studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, providing further evidence that hands-on learning serves as a springboard to future success.

Programming team wins regional, again qualifies for world finals

trevor.kenney — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 20:07:10 +0000

A team of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge computer science and mathematics students has won the 2013 Rocky Mountain Regional Programming Contest, earning the right to compete at an international competition in Ekaterinburg, Russia in June, 2014.

Dr. Howard Cheng looks over the shoulders of his winning team, including (L to R) Darcy Best, Chris Martin and Farshad Barahimi.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge team of Farshad Barahimi (1st year, MSc Computer Science), Darcy Best (2nd year, MSc Mathematics) and Chris Martin (4th year, BSc Computer Science) bested 39 other teams representing schools from Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan at the regional portion of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) contest. It is the first time a U of L team has won the regional competition.

Three other U of L teams participated at the event, which was held Friday and Saturday at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, and all finished in the top half of the competition.

Students are given a series of complex, real-world problems that they must solve over a five-hour time period. Competitors race against the clock, and each other, in a battle of strategy, logic and mental endurance. Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and write programs that solve the problems under the intense scrutiny of expert judges. For a well-versed computer science student, some of the problems require precision only. Others require a knowledge and understanding of advanced algorithms. Still others are simply too hard to solve – except, of course, for the world’s brightest problem-solvers.

This is the second year in a row that the U of L will be sending a team to the world finals. Associate professor of mathematics and computer science, Dr. Howard Cheng, and coach of the U of L programming teams, led a team to a second-place finish at last year’s regional competition (which included Best and Martin).

While the results speak to the talent of the U of L teams, Cheng says the students deserve credit for their hard work.

“They have all worked very hard for this,” says Cheng. “Our top team has been practicing close to 10 hours a week for the past few weeks, but even some of the other teams put in close to 7 hours a week, on top of all the assignments and midterms they have to worry about.”

This past year 29,479 contestants from 2,322 universities in 91 countries competed in regional competitions at over 300 sites worldwide. Only 120 teams from regional contests servicing universities worldwide will advance to the World Finals.

“The commitment of Dr. Cheng and the experience these students receive from an academic and international perspective is a reflection of the type of institution we have become,” says Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Dr. Andy Hakin. “We are very proud of the accomplishments and results our students achieve and, through the efforts of our faculty and staff, proud that we are able to offer these types of experiences to our students.”

The entire roster of U of L competitors includes Barahimi, Best, Martin, Brandon Fuller, Camara Lerner, Vince Weiler, Lindsay Ablonczy, Matt Basaraba, Kai Fender, Kyle Link, Chris Thomas and Justin Werre.

Programming a bright future

trevor.kenney — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 21:45:36 +0000

It’s not every day that you avoid being eaten by digital zombies. But a team of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students has proven it’s just the way to earn a second-place finish at an international programming competition.

The university’s programming contest team participated for the first time in the prestigious annual world finals of the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Sponsored by IBM, the competition was held in St. Petersburg, Russia last summer.

Hugh Ramp (left), Chris Martin (back left), Dr. Howard Cheng (front) and Darcy Best (right) put the U of L on the map at the prestigious ICPC World Finals.

The team, made up of Hugh Ramp (fourth-year physics), Chris Martin (fourth-year computer science), Darcy Best (second-year MSc mathematics) and coaches Dr. Howard Cheng (mathematics and computer science) and Dr. Kevin Grant (mathematics and computer science) took second prize in an open challenge competition that required the students to write an artificial intelligence program that would successfully play a zombie-filled video game on the team’s behalf.

In this battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance, each team had to huddle around a single computer while addressing various problems. For example, the students had to quantify the impact of water pollution and determine how to get commuters to their destinations as quickly as possible without traffic congestion. In the end, among the 120 teams that advanced to the world finals, the
U of L students placed third among the Canadian competitors, 12th out of 23 North American teams and 80th overall.

The competition, says Cheng, equips students for the real-world demands of computing.

“You must work together under intense time constraints. There’s no room for any failure,” he says.

What’s more, says Martin, preparing for the competition is often just as challenging as the contest.
U of L students spent 15 to 20 hours a week – on top of their regular studies – practising sample computing problems.

“The more time you put in, the better you will do,” he says.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Best.

“You have to learn to use new algorithms that aren’t taught in your courses. As a result, my coding skills have gone through the roof.”

Those abilities, he says, have given him an advantage over his classmates, who often must invest considerable time becoming proficient at writing computer programs.

Best, however, isn’t the only one whose ICPC experience has complemented his education. Teammate Ramp (BSc ’13), for instance, has gone on to pursue graduate studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, providing further evidence that hands-on learning serves as a springboard to future success.

UNews - Howard Cheng

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