If you ever wanted to test your logical thinking and computer capabilities, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Chapter can help you become a real problem solver.
On Saturday, Feb. 16, the ACM Chapter held a Programming Competition. It occurred from noon to 5 p.m. in Maynard Room 133. Food and drink were provided, as well as free merchandise such as frisbees and notebooks.
“This competition, in particular, has seven problems for the attendees,” Zack Toupe, a Computer Information Technology major said. “They were made by our professor, Dave Church. They range from adding two values together to harder types of questions. It encourages people who attend to have a lot of knowledge going in. You can use any computer language, or you can learn something new as you go along.”
As stated on their official PeayLink web page, ACM is “the first organization dedicated to the science of computing machinery.” APSU’s ACM Chapter is an extension for the computer science students and curious onlookers.
Harrison Welch has been an associate of the ACM Chapter for three years. According to him, this is the second year the ACM Chapter held a competition of this sort.
“The purpose of the competition is to further their skills in technical programming,” Welch said. “It’s getting a chance to beat each other at their own game, educate themselves and promote a healthy amount of competition among other students.”
That same day, the ACM Chapter held a Junior Coders Event.
It takes place almost every Saturday in the Maynard building, and it welcomes various age groups throughout Clarksville to learn coding and visual programming.
The ACM Chapter also holds various hack-a-thons throughout Tennessee.
Hack-a-thons are coding marathons that involve contestants creating a complete project in 72 hours.
Places the APSU team have been to include Georgia Tech, Atlanta and Murfreesboro.
The ACM Chapter is currently planning another hack-a-thon at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Harrison Welch expressed faith in the audience reception these events have received. “I believe our hack-a-thon events have done really great. We take advantage of Austin Peay’s PR team to help us out and push us at the front of the Austin Peay website. It’s been great seeing the organization under my leadership. We’ve grown from around six students per group to around 20.”
According to Welch, the events do not end there.
“We held a Fortnite competition last year,” Welch said. “It was a local event where we would enter people in a tournament. We had 16 team brackets, and we’d have two people face off against each other before competing over how many kills they got and who would rise to the top based on the official numbers.”
The ACM Chapter is currently planning more future endeavors to draw students into their association.
Students will have more opportunities to explore the numerous outlets and chances to hone their technological programming skills.
For more information about ACM Chapter and their future events, contact the organization at [email protected].
