Programming Students Compete in Global & Regional Events

One Webster programming students have had a busy couple of weeks, competing in two different events.
 
On Saturday, April 30, 20 Webster Schroeder and Webster Thomas high schools students participated virtually in CodeQuest, an annual programming competition hosted by Lockheed Martin. One thousand six hundred students representing 627 teams competed globally across 14 virtual locations. 
 
Webster students showed resilience and perseverance by competing from Schroeder in spite of a power outage. They coded for 2.5 hours on Chromebooks using a wifi hotspot. The team consisting of Jacqueline H. (Schroeder), Danny G. (Thomas), and Sebastian H. (Thomas) placed sixth with 285 points. Students completed problems involving ciphers, sensors, DNA, Morse code, synaptic servers, and rocket science.
 
On Saturday, May 7, 14 Thomas and Schroeder students participated in-person at the annual Cornell University High School Programming Contest. Seventy-five teams competed between the Ithaca and New York City locations. The Schroeder team consisting of Jacqueline H., Stephen M., and Chad C. took first place at the Ithaca location by successfully solving three out of seven of the problems. 
 
Also at the Cornell event, students heard from guest lecturer Curran Muhlberger, who teaches courses on introductory programming and software engineering. He originally came to Ithaca to study physics, performing supercomputer simulations of black holes and neutron stars just in time for the first detection of gravitational waves. From there he moved to Los Angeles to work for SpaceX, this time simulating rocket engines, life support systems, and lasers to help safely send astronauts to orbit and provide Internet to under-served parts of the globe. 
 
Jamie Fagan (Thomas) and Sage Miller (Schroeder) are the advisors for the One Webster programmers.