High school students from across Arkansas gathered in March at the U of A for the annual High School Programming Contest, hosted by the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19.

More than 70 students on 28 teams squared off in a test of programming and problem-solving throughout the day. The event was sponsored by CGI and supported by volunteers from the Association for Computing Machinery at the U of A as well as the Computer Science and Computer Engineering Department.

Professor Kevin Jin led the event for the first time this year after being passed the torch by Professor Wing Ning Li after his retirement in 2022.

"For future students to come here with excited faces and focused faces — I'm very excited," Jin said.

Staff in the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering put countless hours toward planning and running this event. Jenna Stacey, ASCENT program manager, was one of many at the forefront of planning.

"This was an excellent event with a great turnout. It was so exciting to see the future generation working so hard. We are grateful to our sponsor for helping make this happen, and we look forward to next year's high school programming contest. We are thrilled with the turnout this year!" Stacey said.

Students who completed the most questions in the least amount of time were awarded trophies for first place, second place, third place and most creative. All competitors were given free food, T-shirts and the opportunity to win door prizes such as a Nintendo Switch, Raspberry Pi, Blue Yeti microphone, Amazon gift card, gaming keyboard, gaming headset and more!

The awards ceremony took place at the end of the day with a special appearance from Kim Needy, dean of the College of Engineering.

The winners were:

First Place

• Team name: Team 2
• Members: Dylan Carter, Ellie Feng
• School: Conway High School

Second Place

• Team name: teams[0]
• Members: Brent Orlina, Robert Boerwinkle, Vicky Zhu
• School: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts

Third Place

• Team name: IllegalSkillExceptions
• Members: Tobias Bessler, Aniket Gupta, Chandra Suda
• School: Ignite Professional Studies - Bentonville

Most Creative

• Team name: League of Dapper Gentlepersons
• Members: James Mathis, Parker Hance, Jack Smith
• School: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts