Computer science students place among top competitors at ICPC

By Lianne Boxley, CISE student writer

A team of three computer science students – Charlie Hines, Jeremy Kesterson, and Eric Wolf – placed among the top competitors at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Mid-Atlantic Regional Contest, held November 9. 

The trio successfully completed five out of the eight programming problems, taking third place. Overall, they placed twentieth out of 154 teams across the region, putting them in the top 15% of all competitive programming teams in the Mid-Atlantic.

“Our team dynamic is great. Whenever one person is working on the computer, the other two are busy on paper. We keep a lighthearted attitude to keep stress at a low level and talk each other through difficult problems,” says Kesterson.

The team has also won awards at several other programming competitions, including the 2019 CCSC Eastern Conference, where they achieved a first-place finish. The students are coached by computer science professors Mike Lam and John Bowers as part of the JMU Competitive Programming Club.

“They are the best students we have in competitive programming right now,” says Lam. “They practice more than any of my other programming club students, and I think that’s a major factor in their success.”  

ICPC is the largest and most prestigious competitive programming competition in the world. It challenges students to use creativity, teamwork, and innovation to solve a series of complex, real-world programming problems. Teams first compete in Regional Contests, held around the world from September to November each year, with the hope of advancing to the ICPC World Finals in Moscow.