Roanoke College sophomore computer science majors Randall Pittman and Thomas Lux won the student research competition at the Southeastern Region of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges at Furman University (Greenville, SC) on November 15-16, 2013. Junior physics major Maya Shende placed second in the competition. In addition, the programming team of Pittman, Lux, Shende and Natalie Wilkinson (in picture) placed third in a field of 30 teams. Wilkinson is a sophomore double majoring in mathematics and computer science.
Randall Pittman and Thomas Lux started their research on the “Analysis of Sensors for Robotic Localization and Mapping” in the summer of 2013, working with Dr. Bouchard with a William Carroll research grant from the MCSP Department. Maya Shende worked with Dr. Robb on “Computational Modeling of the pre-Botzinger Complex.” In addition, John Guidry’s work on “Beat and Emotion Tracking Mobile Radio” finished in the top five in the competition. Shende and Guidry were also funded by departmental William Carroll grants for summer research.
The programming competition consisted of eight problems to be solved in 3 hours. Teams were graded by number of problems solved, with penalties for incorrect submissions. This was the first programming competition for each member of the team of Pittman, Lux, Shende and Wilkinson. They solved five problems and had a near miss on a sixth problem. Top three is an outstanding placement!
Congratulations to these young and talented students on their achievements!
