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ANNOUNCING THE 1995 IEEE-CS NATIONAL PROGRAMMING CONTEST
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EVENT: The 1995 IEEE Computer Society (inter)National Programming Contest
WHERE: University of Texas at Austin, USA
DATE:
:-------------------------------------------------------------------------- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NATIONAL PROGRAMMING CONTEST Q: What is the IEEE CS National Programming Contest (NPC)? A: The NPC is an invitational computer programming contest which The nature of the game will not be revealed until the contest day. Sources written by last years teams and binaries are available by Q: What is the format of the National Programming Contest? A: On Friday night, the contestants will meet at the hotel for an On Saturday, the first contest day, the contestants will be On Sunday, the second day of the contest, after a couple of hours The 1995 NPC will be held at IBM's Austin facility. The programming Q: Who may compete in the National Programming Contest? A: Although the NPC was originally intended to be only a national event, Q: Are there any contest fees for NPC? A: The NPC is free to the competitors. The sponsors of NPC will pay Q: How old is the NPC? This is the fourth incarnation of the NPC. The first contest was held The winner of last year's contest was the team from Stanford University, Q: What are the prizes? A: Last year, Micron donated 3 486 computers and Watcom donated Q: What is the format of the application? A: Please submit applications via e-mail. There is no limit on If you ABSOLUTELY don't have access to e-mail, we can be reached at: National Programming Contest Please allow as much time as is necessary for your mail to reach In the past, we've had trouble with several teams from a school Please include the following information in your application: If you don't receive acknowledgement of your application withing one The application deadline is midnight, December 31, 1994. Q: Who is organizing this event? A: This event is organized by the students of the IEEE-CS Student Branch Q: WHY do you do this? A: That's a hard one. Believe it or not, we have a lot of fun writing Q: What if we want to start a contest at our school? A: Go for it. You'll need people to help program, to raise funds, to The NPC, however is very large-scale, and has been in development for :-------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPLICATION DEADLINE: December 31, 1994 SEND APPLICATIONS TO: ap...@npc.ece.utexas.edu SEND QUESTIONS TO: answ...@npc.ece.utexas.edu :--------------------------------------------------------------------------
challenges 16 of the finest undergraduate student programing teams
in the world to compete against each other in a new and exciting
contest format. Each school sends a team of three students.
These three students are given just one day to write a 'player',
a program which will compete against other players in a game created
for the contest by the NPC organizers.
Last year, contestants wrote players that flew space ships around an
arena which tried to bump or shoot each other out of the arena.
anonymous ftp from npc.ece.utexas.edu in /pub/Space_Brawl_NPC94/.
introductory assembly and registration. Although the contest
doesn't begin until Saturday morning, we ask the teams to arrive
Friday evening, as this information session is very important.
Team packets containing information about the game will be
distributed at this time.
transported to IBM for the day of programming. Approximately
18 hours over Saturday and Sunday will be allowed for programming.
of final work, the contestants' programs fight each other for
first place. The contest will conclude with an awards ceremony
and prize distribution.
and gameplay will take place on 50 IBM RS/6000 UNIX workstations
linked through a token-ring network. The contestants will use
C++ to write their programs. We ask that at least one member of the
team be experienced with C++ programming in a UNIX environment.
It is usually best if all three teammates know C++ programming.
we are getting interest from international schools. We encourage these
schools to submit applications if they are interested in sending a
team. Teams will no longer be invited automatically, as we only have
room for 16 teams. All teams interested in competing are encouraged to
apply. All competitors must be undergraduate students (or equivalent)
in their major on the day of the contest. If this requirement is not
clear or your country uses a different system, please mail us for
clarification, as this rule will be strictly enforced. All teams
must consist of exactly three competitors. You DO NOT have to be a
member of IEEE or IEEE-CS to compete.
for all food during the contest days and all transportation between
the hotel and contest site. To arrange for more than one hotel room
or for rental cars, please phone ahead. The NPC will not cover the
cost of transportation to and from Austin. However, you will be notified
in time to arrange for reduced-rate advance air fares.
at the University of Texas on November 21, 1991 and last year's contest
was held March 26th and 27th at IBM in Austin, Texas. IBM has graciously
agreed to host our contest again this year.
9 of their 32-Bit Professional C compilers. This year's
prizes are in the works. Stay tuned for more details.
size except common-sense. We will be looking over each application
very carefully and may send mail back to you for clarifications.
University of Texas at Austin
ENS 103
Austin, TX 78712
us by the deadline. (This can be up to and over three weeks for
international mail) And for our reply to reach you. Also remember
that 'snail-mail' is not very reliable compared to e-mail, so we
may not even receive your application if you send it in this manner.
having members with similar qualifications. The selection committee
can use every bit of relevant information in making their decision (i.e.
Computer-related experience, activities, honors & awards)
Previous programming-contest experience is a plus, and could be used
as a tie-breaker in making the selections.
We must remind you that only one team will be selected per school, and
each team must have three members.
1) Names of the three team members
2) E-mail address of a sponsor or contact (may be a member of the team)
3) School
4) Major of each member
5) Programming experience, honors, awards, activities & clubs
(computer-related), and any other relevant info. If you have
experience with programming AI, then include that. If you know
some obscure language, then let us know.
week, please resubmit it. Though you should receive an immediate reply,
sometimes things can be lost in the shuffle.
All applicants will be notified of their status by January 15th,
1995 at the latest.
Chapter at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. With the help of
some (in)voluntary recruits.
the game. (Which is half the work) Meetings are held weekly, with
various tasks assigned to different people. These include writing
the server, the API, the graphics server, sound, and various other
programming tasks. Most of us plan to go into computer-related fields
after graduation, and this is a step in that direction. Others, while
involved in other fields, just have fun working with computers as a
hobby. And, if the hard work weren't fulfillment enough (it isn't)
the contest itself is a very exciting event for all who participate.
get sponsors, and to organize. And of course, you'll need contestants.
For a smaller contest, you can host one at a local level, with a small
entry fee to buy pizza for a small-scale one day contest. These can
be organized very quickly, with minimal overhead.
the last four years, always growing. Work on next year's contest will
begin the day after, and possibly before this year's contest. Always
remember that you can re-use code and ideas from previous contests.