VERMILLION, S.D. — A team of three University of South Dakota computer science students will compete next spring in Thailand with some of the most prestigious schools in the world, including Harvard and Stanford universities and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
USD is among 23 universities that will represent the United States and Canada at the 2016 World Finals for the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC) May 15-20 at Prince of Songkla University, Phuket, Thailand.
"This is the best achievement for our students so far. It shows that our students work hard and have the ability to compete with the elite group of universities around the world,” said QuocNam Tran, Ph.D., professor and chair of USD's Department of Computer Science.
USD sponsored three teams that took part in the 2015 ACM North Central America regional contest, which represents the area of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Western Ontario, Manitoba, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The USD team comprised of Kurtis Van Gent, of Sheldon, Iowa, Ben Ericsson, of Slayton, Minnesota, and Mitchell Peterson, of Centerville, South Dakota, solved five problems, which put it in the top four universities among 223 teams and qualified USD for the international competition.