One team from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won first place and two other ASMSA teams placed in the top 10 at the annual University of Arkansas High School Programming Contest.
Calling themselves the League of Dapper Gentlepersons, seniors Simon Boerwinkle and Tara Moses and junior Joseph Zhang won first place in the contest held by the University of Arkansas’ Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering on the Fayetteville campus on March 15. Acxiom and the university’s student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery sponsored the contest.
Student teams were given eight programming problems that could be solved either using Java or C++. Teams were ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams were ranked by least amount of time used to solve problems in order to break ties.
The team of Boerwinkle, Moses and Zhang solved seven problems, besting 22 other teams from eight high schools around the state. That was the most problems solved by any team. Boerwinkle of El Dorado is the son of David and Robin Boerwinkle. Moses of Arkadelphia is the daughter of Cheryl MacKay. Zhang of Little Rock is the son of Linda Han.
The team Seg Fault, comprised of ASMSA seniors Russell Bryan, Yeongwoo Hwang and Dylan Johnson, solved four problems to finish in fourth place. Bryan of Conway is the son of Sarah and Eric Bryan. Hwang of Jonesboro is the son of Kyoungsuk Ahn and Yeonsang Hwang. Johnson of Redfield is the son of Laurie and Sean Johnson.
Finishing in 10th place was ASMSA’s teams[0], comprised of senior Kevin Fialkowski and juniors Adam Bliss and Asa Thacker. The team solved one problem, tying 13 other teams. It was the team to solve the problem the fastest. Fialkowski of Heber Springs is the son of Marta and Paul Fialkowski. Bliss of North Little Rock is the son of Deborah Bliss and the late Tony Bliss. Thacker of North Little Rock is the son of Georgia Bell and Ian Thacker.