GREENVILLE, S.C. (February 27, 2018) – Bob Jones University computer science teams placed first and second in Division II of the Mercer 2018 Programming Contest held Saturday, Feb. 24, at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. BJU’s junior team placed third in their division and BJU placed third overall.
Thirty-eight teams from fifteen colleges and universities competed in two divisions in the competition, including teams from the University of Central Florida, Clemson University, North Georgia University, Mercer University, Lander University, Maryville College, Georgia Tech, and The Citadel.
Each team consisted of three students. The competitors were given five hours to solve eleven problems by writing a computer program that produces the required output for the judge’s test data.
“We are proud of the accomplishment of our students and pleased about their good testimony for Christ this weekend,” said Dr. Stephen Schaub, assistant professor of computer science at BJU.
BJU’s first place team consisted of senior math major Jacob Brazeal (Taylors, South Carolina), senior computer science major Nathan Collins (Taylors, South Carolina), and junior computer science major Samuel Henry (McDonough, Georgia).
The second place team consisted of senior computer science major Matthew Laird (Nashua, New Hampshire), senior computer science major Mark Bixler (New Era, Michigan), and sophomore computer science major Zachary Hayes (Grovetown, Georgia).
BJU’s junior team consisted of computer science freshmen Jacob Franklin (Rockford, Illinois), James Efting (Roswell, Georgia), and Amy Surrett (Raleigh, North Carolina).
BJU has competed in the Mercer Programming Contest twelve times and has earned five of the top six places in Division II over the last three years.
