Whippet Programmers Compete at MSOE

Forty-five computer programming teams representing 14 Wisconsin and Illinois high schools gathered in Diercks Hall at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) on Friday, November 18, for the annual Opportunity Conference Computer Competition. Competing schools included Crystal Lake Central, Crystal Lake South, Arrowhead, Greendale, University School of Milwaukee, Homestead, Grafton, Brookfield East, Janesville Parker, Janesville Craig, Menomonee Falls, Whitefish Bay, Prairie Ridge, and Whitewater.

Students worked in groups of up to four using only two computers per group to tackle nine problems of varying difficulty including three 10-point problems, three 20-point problems, and three 40-point problems, during 2.5 hours of intense competition. Groups could choose to use either Python or Java.

Whitewater was represented by two groups made up of current and former AP Computer Science students and 3 groups of students just getting started with coding in the Computer Programming I course. Programming in Java were Jazmin Cederberg, Daniel Portwine, Brooke Bazeley, Dayna Carlson, and Drew Swartz. Programming in Python were Zoe Olson, Arson Webster-Barczak, Atreyu Blahnik, Chacha Binagi, Ace Hudec, Rae Breisath, Ethan Barels, Chris Cortes, Adalynn Frye, and Ash Kutal.

A group from Greendale High School placed first, eventually solving 5 of the 9 problems correctly and earning 78 of the possible 210 points. Greendale was the only group to solve any of the 40-point problems correctly.

While awaiting the awards ceremony, students learned about machine learning and artificial intelligence projects taking place at MSOE using their on site super-computer named Rosie.