The Contest Finals.

First folks get ready to come into the contest area.

Some are more ready than others!

After the spectators are seated, the teams stream in to their workstations.

Some introductions are made and then ACM President, Chuck House; past president Stu Zweben, Microsoft volunteer Dave Brennan, and pioneer Finals Director John Metzner release the balloons to begin the contest.

There are eight color-coded balloons representing the eight contest problems. When a team solves a problem, they get an appropriate colored balloon.

The contest begins with the most deafening silence you can image. Hardly a rustle is heard for the first 45 minutes of the contest.

Collaboration doesn't start until the second hour.

Let's take a tour of the aisles and see the teams on the day of the practice session and during the contest.

link to team1..6.htm.l

Then a few snapshots

Meanwhile the judges are into it deeply as Laurie White and Robin O'Leary check a problem statement.

Bob Roos mugs for a snapshot as judges scurry in the background. Easy problems are hard to judge. Hard problems are easy. ... most of the time.

Dick Rinewalt, Director Judging, prof from TCU takes a welcome break. Preparation makes problems with the problems rare.

Mattias Ruhl, judge and former '95 champion from Freiburg, judges with little strain. Ahh, to be young again!

Senior Judge Pat Ryan (TechnoSolutions Inc) and Chief Judge Jo Perry of N.C. State look at requests for clarifications concerning problem statements. Responses go to all of the teams unless the clarification request is returned with no comment.

Contest staff prepare certificates, run balloons, prepare press releases, fix problems, run contestants to hospitals (as needed), and just about anything else you could image. A few mug for a snapshot. The are James Comer (Finals Director), Jennifer Sitton (Contest Manager), Ria from Eindhoven, Fran Sinhart (ACM HQ), Melinda Poucher (Mindy), and Marsha Poucher (Asst. Contest Manager).

The Systems Group (Troy Boudreau, Rob McPeek, Sam Ashoo, and John Clevenger) make sure that the PC^2 contest software developed at UC State @ Sacramento for the ACM Programming Contest lets the 50 teams solve 175 problems in just 5 hours. What a feat!

Baylor's Bob Vargas (regional contest director for South Central U.S.A.) is the gatekeeper.

Back at the the Judges' Area, Laurie and Robin take a break. I never successfully get a photograph of Laurie's face.

The contest staff takes a break. They will supervise the break down of the entire contest area in the several hours following the finals. Certificates are printed and framed for the top ten teams. Top ten means the upper 1% of the teams selected by their universities to compete in regional contests worldwide. The Contest Finals consists of the top 5%.

Lena Iaccarino ofACM Headquarters fills everyone in on what's happening in the ACM Business Meetings...

So back to the floor. With less than an hour in the contest, National Taiwan University is leading the pack. Look at some of the 175 balloons representing problems solved. It takes 6 problems solved to make the top 6!

Harvey Mudd working on #6.

National Taiwan University with 6.

University of Queensland just solved #6. Checking out the scoreboard, trying to get number 7!

University of Washington with 6!

Umea University, Sweden, with 6!

U of Waterloo with 6!

Solving 7 may win the championship! But, 9 other teams have solved 5! Bill Poucher told them about the year that one team solved three problems in the last hour to take the championship! There is no coasting from the top teams in the final hour.

The last minute is a frantic blur! Who are those people out their creeping into the contest area?

Finally, its over!

Waterloo coach Jo Ebergen knows his team solved 6! Where are they in the standings? Did they get a 7th solved at the end? Where's a drug store?

Finals Director James Comer wraps up with a few announcements. The final results are announced at the ACM Awards Dinner.

After the ACM Turing Award and other major ACM awards are presented to leaders in the information technology industry and computer science and engineering, the contest takes the stage.

Unfortunately, a bomb scare and pressing a "record sound" button results in 19.2MB of recorded crowd shuffling and four dead batteries. The presentation photos will have to wait!

Thanks for taking a look!

Bill Poucher,

ACM Programming Contest Director