Saturday was Nothern Michigan University's Annual Invitational Programming Contest. I went for the first time and I have to say it was a lot of fun. A member of my team got sick and couldn't come so I ended up joining two of my friends who also were down a member. I think we did pretty well for it being the first time any of us had done something like this.

There were six problems to solve in five hours using one laptop and three group members. Basically, the group just makes a solution on the computer and then calls for a 'runner' in the hallway and gives them the files for the judge to test. Eventually, someone returns and gives you a piece of paper telling you if you got it right, if there were presentation errors, or if it was just incorrect all together. Each wrong submission added 20 minutes on to your final total time.

The teams at the end are ranked by how many problems they solved and then by how long it took them to solve each problem (in minutes) added together. No one solved two of the six problems which were very difficult to do in a short period of time. We ended up solving four and coming in 7th place / 24 overall because our time was longer than the six in front of us.

Check out the results here. I'm on the 7th place team, "Word Up". Michigan Tech won the overall school competition though.

I'll definitely do it again next year if I have the opportunity. It's a lot of fun.

The Cubs first game is tomorrow. I'm planning on bringing my laptop to school so I can watch part of the game between my classes. This season looks like it will be pretty good for the Cubs. I hope Prior figures out what's wrong with his pitching and is able to take the place of one of the starters that they are currently using. I'm not sure the two free agent pitchers they signed are as good as they are being paid.

Labels: cubs, mtu, nmu, programming