UNews - Hugh Ramp

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 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.

Programming team excels in Russia

trevor.kenney — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:20:14 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Inter-Collegiate Programming Contest team will return from the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals in St. Petersburg, Russia with several notable achievements after their first-ever international competition.

The team, made up of Hugh Ramp (fourth-year physics); Chris Martin (third-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 fourth place in an open challenge competition where they had to code their way out of a video game problem – and avoid being eaten by digital zombies in the process.

Their win was chronicled on the ITBusiness News website and the ITWorld Canada website:

http://www.itbusiness.ca/news/alberta-students-scoop-fourth-place-in-international-ai-programming-challenge/37384

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/alberta-students-4th-in-ai-programming-contest/147325

In a similar online challenge at the end of June, first-time contestant Camara Lerner claimed a second place finish among 14 teams, while teammate Kai Fender made it through three rounds of problem-solving challenges. http://www.uleth.ca/notice/display.html?b=300&s=19610

As well, the team placed third among the Canadian competitors, 12th out of 23 North American teams and 80th of all 120 teams entered in the contest, which was hosted by St. Petersburg National Research ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO).

Complete results are available here: http://static.kattis.com/icpc/wf2013/

The team will return to Lethbridge July 6.

Computer programming group off to Russia

trevor.kenney — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:14:52 +0000

The recent winners of a spot in a prestigious international computer science and mathematics challenge competition are going to have to brush up on their Russian – and quickly.

A team of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge computer science and physics students, coached by Dr. Howard Cheng, placed second of 49 teams from western Canada and the northwestern United States at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Rocky Mountain competition at the end of October.

The team's success landed three members (Hugh Ramp, Chris Martin and Darcy Best) of the U of L group on the elite roster of competitors at the ICPC World Finals to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 30 to July 4, 2013. It is the first time the U of L has qualified students for the world finals.

Front row (l to r) Hugh Ramp, fourth-year physics, Dr. Howard Cheng, team coach; Back row (l to r) Chris Martin, third-year computer science, Darcy Best, second-year mathematics.

"The team also won a warm-up event two weeks before the regional contest (the Alberta Collegiate Programming Contest) where we took the top spot in the province, and the students have put in a tremendous amount of training into this effort," says Cheng.

The events leading up to, and including, the St. Petersburg events are a gruelling series of problem-solving boot camps, competitions and drills designed to enhance the students' ability to work as a team under relentless pressure, the watchful eyes of the world's best judges and extremely strict working conditions.

"They trained for hours on weekends as well as a few evenings just before the regional contest. This is in addition to the years of practices they have had, including taking a course (CPSC 3200) that teaches many of the topics they had to know for this contest. Top IT employers such as IBM and Google value these contests and commonly test applicants with programming contest puzzles during interviews, so there is definitely a career-related aspect to knowing how these types of puzzles work."

St. Petersburg National Research ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) hosts the ICPC World Finals. Only 115 of the top teams in the world make it to the final competition.

"This is an outstanding achievement for our students and their coaching and mentoring group," says Dr. Chris Nicol, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. "Howard has done an excellent job of building up the team's strength and developing its real-world experience in mathematics and computer science through these competitions. They have been consistently successful at regional competitions, and that success is now paying off. We wish them well in their future efforts at the world finals in Russia this summer."

At the ACM Rocky Mountain Regional Contest at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta in October, U of L teams placed second, 12th, 28th, and 34th of 49 groups.

The full U of L contingent features: Darcy Best, Chris Martin, Hugh Ramp, Rio Lowry, Chris Thomas, Kim Wikkerink, Mark Hunter, Ian Stewart, Fei Wang, Camara Lerner, Jason Racine and Vince Weiler.

This story first appeared in the December 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the entire issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Programming Team Earns Second Place Finish At Rocky Mountain Regional

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:55:22 +0000

A 12-person group is split into four groups of three, and has to solve nine complex computer programming problems in a very short time. All the while, they are competing against more than 50 other teams from across North America as part of the Rocky Mountain region of the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest.

How did the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge group fare? Very well. Of the four teams in the competition from the U of L, one group took second place and three other teams landed in the middle third of the results – 23rd, 25th, and 29th place overall.

"Students have to apply what they learn in different courses, and some problems require knowledge of techniques or algorithms that are not taught in any course," says team advisor
Dr. Howard Cheng (mathematics and computer science). "These are taught during our regular practice sessions, where the teams spend several hours per week training for this contest."

The competition draws students from large and small colleges and universities throughout Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Eastern Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Mexico. The group received funding from the Faculty of Arts and Science as well as Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures to support the costs for participation.

Cheng says the contest requires logical thinking skills and precise implementation of their ideas.

"If their solution is incorrect for even one test case, it is considered wrong," he says.

The groups had limited time to complete a series of nine problems, which ranged from supposedly simple, to very complex.

"We had to figure out how to write code based on where the letter 't' appeared in a series of words," says Keilan Scholten, a third year mathematics and computer science student. "It seems simple, but we wound up using more than an hour and a half of our time allotment. The first six of our problems were done in just over two hours."

Among the problems, the group successfully created a ranking of teams for a soccer league, figured out the maximum number of climbers a piece of climbing rope can support and worked out a way to determine if packages of certain dimensions were the right size to be mailed.

Team group members included: (Team A) Darcy Best, Keilan Scholten, Hugh Ramp; (Team B) Jeremy Andrijancic, Johnny Boldt, Kim Wikkerink; (Team C) Mark Fischer, Mark Hunter, Fern Leavens; (Team D) Falcon Momot, Jason Racine and Fei Wang. Best (fourth year), Ramp (second year) and Scholten (third year) also finished third in the Alberta Collegiate Programming Contest, held in mid-October as a warm-up to the regional contest.

For a look at the full issue of the November Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Student undergraduate research award winners

trevor.kenney — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:55:09 +0000

Following are the 2010 Student Research Awards for undergraduate students. Please note that some awards might not be listed because the granting agency has not yet given the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ permission to publicly release the information.

AHFMR Summer Studentship Awards
(Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research)

Katie Areshenko, Biological Sciences (O. Kovalchuk)
Elfriede Dyck, Biological Sciences (R. Golsteyn)
Kristyn Kurio, Neuroscience (G. Metz)
Rajat Thapa, Neuroscience (R. Sutherland)
Saif Zahir, Neuroscience (B. Kolb)

Chinook Research Summer Awards

Lowell Ayers, Philosophy (T. Govier)
Lisa Boody, History (L. Kennedy)
Janelle Brodner, Modern Languages (N. Rosen)
Brett Clifton, History (A. Shaw)
Michael De Coste, Physics (B. Seyed-Mahmoud)
Laura Faber, Mathematics & Computer Science (H. Kadiri)
James Falconer, Sociology (A.Kazemipur)
Yang Li, Mathematics & Computer Science (N. Ng & A. Akbary)
Sheena MacInnis, Neuroscience (M. Tata)
Dominic Mudiayi, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Hugh Ramp, Mathematics & Computer Science (H. Kharaghani)
Dasha Reizvikh, Health Sciences (B. Lee)
Laura Richardson, Anthropology (J. Newberry)
Bethany Schmidt, Sociology (R. Wood)
Rachel Shields, Sociology (C. Malacrida)
Tyler Stewart, Fine Arts (A. Dymond)
Jennifer VanderFluit, Fine Arts (A. Dymond)
Sophia Vathracoulis, Chemistry & Biochemistry (P. Hayes)
Vanessa Wall, Health Sciences (B. Hagen)
Elizabeth Young, History (H. MacDonald)
Amber Zary, Sociology (T. Harrison)

NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Trystyn Berg, Physics & Astronomy (D. Naylor)
Darcy Best, Mathematics & Computer Science (K. Kharaghani)
Alix Blackshaw, Neuroscience (A. Iwaniuk)
Lisza Bruder, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Mosimann)
Mackenzie Coatham, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Adriena De Visser, Biological Sciences (B. Selinger)
Jarrod Dowdall, Neuroscience (M. Tata)
Shey Eagle Bear, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Melissa Ferrari, Neuroscience & Physics (A. Cross)
Jason Flindall, Psychology (D. Weeks)
Thomas Fox, Geography (C. Hugenholtz)
Andrea Glover, Chemistry & Biochemistry (P. Hayes)
Dillon Hambrook, Neuroscience (A. Luczak)
Tanner Heggie, Physics & Astronomy (D. Naylor)
Breanne Kamenz, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Wetmore)
Fern Leavens, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Wetmore)
Elizabeth Millions, Chemistry & Biochemistry (S. Wetmore)
Samuel Neale, Physics & Astronomy (D. Naylor)
Kirsten Rosler, Chemistry & Biochemistry (H. J. Wieden)
Keilan Scholten, Mathematics & Computer Science (A. Akbary)
Jordan Van Dyk, Biological Sciences (E. Schultz)

Alberta Cancer Foundation Studentship

Philip Kubara, Biological Sciences (R. Golsteyn)

2010 student research awards (undergraduate)

trevor.kenney — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:30:39 +0000

AHFMR Summer Studentship Awards
(Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research)

Chinook Research Summer Awards

NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Alberta Cancer Foundation Studentship

Philip Kubara, Biological Sciences (R. Golsteyn)

UNews - Hugh Ramp

Programming a bright future

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