SBUBolivar, Missouri Est. 1878

SBU CIS Students in Top Three Teams at AITP National Collegiate Conference

A team of four SBU computer science students claimed third place at the Association for Information Technology Professionals (AITP) National Collegiate Conference (NCC) in the Microsoft Visual Studio Programming Competition.  Full results are listed below.  The team consisted of Jacob Williams (SR, Hume, MO), Levi Kemp (JR, Bolivar, MO), Tyler Coppedge (SR, Broken Arrow, OK), and Nathan Stukenborg (SR, Fulton, MO).  Thirty-five teams from universities across the nation comprised the field. 

“It was a real nail-biter for us,” said Dr. Tim DeClue.  “The Visual Studio competition is the one that really tests the abilities of software engineering students, and so it is saved to the final announcement of the awards ceremony.  When the winning teams were announced it was a great moment for our students, the CIS Department, and the University.  Before we left Bolivar, we had prayed God would bless our trip and this award was certainly an answer to that prayer.”

The competition pits teams of up to four students per school with two computers using  Microsoft’s software development environment (Visual Studio) to create a large-scale solution to a computational problem.

SBU also placed three students in the top-ten nationally in the undergraduate research paper competition, and received an honorable mention in the web development project competition.  Other students on the team included Scott Mark (SR, El Dorado Springs, MO), Christopher Stucky (SR, Kansas City, MO), Thomas Wallen (SR, Stockton, MO), Nathan Mersch (SR, Bolivar, MO),  Andy Fulton (Salem, MO), and Blayne Riffle (JR, Bolivar, MO).

Final Results, Visual Studio Competition, AITP National Collegiate Conference

1. Brigham Young University              Provo, UT                   
2. University of Southern Indiana       Evansville, IN              
3. SBU          Bolivar, MO               
4. Texas State University                    San Marcos, TX          
5. University of Mississippi                 Oxford, MS           

SBU Repeats as 2008 Programming Contest Champs!

In what can only be called a fitting end to a banner year, SBU CIS students swept the top two spots at the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC) regional programming contest on April 5th. The event was held at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and featured nineteen teams from eight universities.

“Our A team had three seniors, and this was the last competition of their college career for two of them. I know their heart’s desire was to go out with a bang—I think they did that and more” said Dr. Tim DeClue, Chair of the SBU CIS Department.

SBU’s veteran A team, consisting of Adam Carney (SR, Weableau, MO), Nate Sisk (SR, Sikeston, MO), and Michael Van DeVender (SR, Nixa, MO), won the competition by a wide margin effectively doubling the output of the second place team, also from SBU, by submitting correct solutions to four problems during the competition. SBU’s B team, consisting of Andrew Cook (SO, Kansas City, MO), Jacob Williams (SO, Hume, MO), and JR Smith (SR, Westphalia, KS) solved two problems successfully in 58 minutes. The third place University of Central Missouri team also solved two problems, but could only manage their feat over an hour after the SBU second-place team was done. Competing on SBU’s C team and finishing in 12th place in the field of 19 teams was Blayne Riffle (FR, Bolivar, MO), Natalie Schroeder (FR, Topeka, KS), Christopher Stuckey (SO, Kansas City, MO). Coaches for all three teams consisted of CIS faculty Jim Cain, Jeff Kimball, and DeClue.

“We’re going to miss this group of seniors—they are really a top-notch group—but we’ve got some great freshmen, and some sophomores and juniors who have been waiting for quite a while for their chance to shine on the victory stand for SBU. Plus, our incoming freshmen look very strong—they’ll be ready in a couple of years too. God has been good to us, and we are going to continue to rely on His good will for the Department” added DeClue.

The 15th Annual meeting of the CCSC-Central Plains region will be held April 3 and 4 on the campus of SBU. The programming contest will take place on the afternoon of April 4, 2009.

COMPLETE RESULTS

SBU team captures nine top-ten finishes – most awards by any university in attendance

All of the categories included some tough competition, but Application Development was perhaps the most sought after award at the conference because it most clearly demonstrated quality in software engineering—exactly what the SBU CIS Department is known for. According to Dr. Tim DeClue, Chair of the CIS Department, the application development problem was difficult, big, ill-defined and challenging. “Each team had to complete a problem solution in four hours. Included in the solution was a command-line script, a web application, a graphical user interface, and database connectivity. And we’re not talking theory or ivory towers here…it all has to work.”

"This is an incredible accomplishment for our students," continued DeClue, "When you look at the schools we were competing against, you begin to understand the special place that SBU has become. How many other schools our size with a purposefully Christian mission have students who can say what our’s can -- that the peer institutions are among the most well-known on a national level.”

Attending the AITP National Collegiate Conference were Meilani Williams (SR, Leavenworth, KS), Justin West (SR, Blue Springs, MO), Nathaniel Colt (SR, Bolivar, MO), Rick Barnhouse (SR, Bolivar, MO), Jeremiah Smith (SR, Westphalia, KS), AJ Brewer (SR, Chariton, IA), Nate Sisk (SR, Sikeston, MO), Adam Carney (SR, Weableau, MO), Rich Schoenrock (SR, Waynesville, MO), Michael VanDevender (SR, Nixa, MO), Ben Brundage (SR, Lucerne, MO), Justin Sheets (SR, St. Louis, MO).