A Bob Jones University intercollegiate computer programming team placed first in the annual Consortium for Computing Sciences-Southeastern Conference (CCSC-SE) on Saturday, Jan. 29. BJU hosted the programming contest for the first time in 28 years.
The seven participating institutions fielded 13 teams. Over a three-hour period, the four member teams were tasked with solving nine problems. A team from Mercer University tied with a team from BJU for first place. After a review of the time to solve each question and the number of attempts, BJU 1 earned first place honors by eight points.
The winning team, BJU 1, was comprised of senior Erick Ross of Greenville, South Carolina; senior Steven Platt of Carmel, Indiana; sophomore Ethan House of Baxter, Minnesota; and junior Kevin Kuhn of Mauldin, South Carolina. BJU Team 2, which placed third overall, was composed of senior Melchisedek Dulcio of Greenville, South Carolina; sophomore Shouyu Du of Nanjing Jiangsu, China; freshman Rhys Fuller of Mokena, Illinois; and freshman Garrett Jones of Rockwall, Texas.
Participating institutions included Francis Marion University, Furman University, Gardner-Webb University, Lander University, Mercer University and Wofford College. BJU has participated in the CCSC-SE programming contest since 2002.
“This contest was the first in-person contest we have participated in since February 2020. The number of schools was down, but it was nice to be able to see other teams and coaches again,” said Dr. Jim Knisely, head of the BJU computer science department. “The winning margin was less than a minute per problem so our team had to watch the scoreboard to see if their time would be beaten. We did win but we all felt like winners since we were able to compete together instead of virtually.”