A Bob Jones University Bruins intercollegiate computer programming team placed first in the small school division for the fourth consecutive year at the annual Spring Programming Competition held Feb. 16 at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
Seniors Nathan Collins (Taylors, South Carolina), Samuel Henry (McDonough, Georgia) and Jacob Brazeal (Taylors, South Carolina) comprised the small school division first-place team. The BJU team of juniors Zachary Hayes (Grovetown, Georgia), Ryan Longacre (Hallstead, Pennsylvania) and Jeremiah England (Anchorage, Alaska) was runner-up.
The rookie team of freshman Steven Platt (Carmel, Indiana), freshman Erick Ross (Greenville, South Carolina) and sophomore Colton Shipe (Finksburg, Maryland) placed first in their division.
The five-hour competition has been hosted by Mercer University for 14 years. Formatted after the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Regionals competition, teams consist of three individuals that compete in four divisions. Scoring is based on the number of problems answered correctly.
“The Mercer contest allows us to benchmark our students against the best schools in the Southeast, while also being ranked against schools that are comparable in size,” said Dr. Jim Knisely, head of BJU’s Department of Computer Science. “It has been a joy to train this group and the seniors have had a great four years representing BJU.”
BJU, Clemson University, Georgia Tech, Mercer University, Lander University, the University of Alabama, Georgia College, Spelman College, The Citadel and the University of Central Florida entered a combined 28 teams in the competition.
BJU and the University of Central Florida both had two teams in the top five overall along with one team from Georgia Tech. It is the third time in four years that BJU’s best team finished third overall.
