For a gallery of photos from the contest, click here.

North Allegheny Senior High School won the 28^th annual Invitational High School Programming Contest at St. Bonaventure University Friday.

The Brown Team from the suburban Pittsburgh school in Wexford, Pa., solved seven of the nine programming problems correctly in a total of 519 minutes. Ithaca High School’s Brown Team placed second, also solving seven problems, but taking 547 minutes.  Ithaca High School’s Gold Team placed third, solving four problems in a total of 375 minutes.

Fifteen teams from nine schools in New York and Pennsylvania competed in the morning-long contest, sponsored by St. Bonaventure University’s Department of Computer Science.

Doug Patrone of Applied Dimension Inc. configured the contest environment and judging database. Ten St. Bonaventure University computer science students contributed time and expertise to the setup, administration, monitoring, and judging of the contest.

Teams, consisting of up to four members, were given a set of nine problems, a computer in a lab in the Walsh Science Center, and three hours in which to solve as many of the problems as possible. Teams were ranked based upon the number of problems that they solved and the time in which they solved them.

Among other challenges, this year’s problem set required teams to analyze networks for vulnerabilities, to measure password strength, and to perform analyses of stock prices.

During the competition, the teams’ faculty advisers attended a presentation by Mikhail Sudakov of St. Bonaventure’s Office of Technology Services on cybersecurity issues, both as real-life concerns and as a topic for high school computer science curricula.

The winning team from North Allegheny consisted of Robert Kasper, Jason Brar, Joe Caulkins, and Kevin Stiles; Cris Ruffolo accompanied the team as their adviser. The Ithaca team that placed second consisted of Jacob Silcoff, Jonathan Gomes-Selman, Freya Ryd, and Vivek Myers; Fred Deppe served as their adviser. The third-place team from Ithaca featured Jeong Lee, Alison Ke, Ruth Silcoff, and Andrey Shakhzadyan.  

Other schools that competed included Bishop Guilfoyle High School from Altoona, Pa.; Hampton High School from Allison Park, Pa.; the Nichols School from Buffalo (two teams); Scio (N.Y.) High School; Webster Schroeder and Webster Thomas (two teams) high schools from Webster, N.Y.; and Williamsville East and Williamsville North (two teams) high schools from Williamsville, N.Y. (two teams).

Contest results — including contest questions, previous results, and contest rules — are available at http://www.cs.sbu.edu/contest/

For more information, contact the contest director, Dr. Steven K. Andrianoff, at 716-375-2053.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, we believe in the goodness of every person and in the ability of every person to do extraordinary things.  St. Bonaventure University cultivates graduates who are confident and creative communicators, collaborative leaders and team members, and innovative problem solvers who are respectful of themselves, others, and the diverse world around them. Named the #5 best college value in the North by U.S. News and World Report, we are establishing pathways to internships, graduate schools and careers in the context of our renowned liberal arts tradition. Our students are becoming extraordinary.