Scott Lembcke, Nate Fortuna, and Daniel Selifonov (left to right on the picture) won first place in the MICS programming contest. Congratulations to the winners!

Everyone was excited to graduate in 2005. Even though we had a blast it is always exciting to venture into new frontiers. Congratulations to the graduating class of 2005 may luck find you in your future.

The Midwest Instructional Computing Symposium was held in Eau Claire, Wis., on April 8- 9. Three research papers were presented: "Task Allocation with Communications Costs Considered," by Jon Quarfoth, Andy Korth and Dian Lopez, which won a Best Paper Award; "Empirical Studies of Java Optimizations," by Steve Caudill and Elena Machkasova; and "An Introduction to Robotics Course," by Andy Lopez and Chris Olson. Two teams from UMM also participated in the Programming Contest. A team of Victor Balling, Emily Christiansen, and Andy Korth placed second in the competition; and a team of Matt Carlson, Chris Heuer, and Jon Quarfoth placed eighth out of 28 teams. Participating in the Robotics Contest, and taking third place out of eight teams, were Matt Carlson, Chris Heuer, Chris Olson, and Jon Quarfoth.

The University of Minnesota, Morris team, Declarative Non-statement, placed first at the UMM site and 22nd in the region during the annual Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest held November 5 at UMM. The team, comprised of Matthew Carlson, Nate Fortuna, and Scott Lembcke, was followed closely by another UMM team, Leaf on the Wind, comprised of Daniel Harms, Matthew Justin, and Victor Balling, who placed 23rd in the region.

UMM's computer science discipline hosted nine programming teams from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota UMM is one of 16 sites in the North Central North America region, with over 180 teams competing in the regional competition.

CONGRATULATIONS! To the teams who recently competed in the Digi-Key competition. Team "Four Digit Integer" (Ellery Crane, Dan Harms, Alex Jarvis, Wayne Manselle) took the 2nd place, team "Threadlock" (Emily Christiansen, Matt Carlson, Jon Quarfoth, Chris Heuer) took the 3rd place. The teams earned $2400 for the discipline as well as individual prizes.

Although it's sad to see our friends, the students we've seen grow and fourish in our classes depart, we are always proud to see the faces of our newly graduated seniors on the day they step up to the podium and into the next great phase of their lives. Graduating class of 2004, congratulations, you will be missed and forever welcome back home at UMM, we wish you the best of fortunes in your feature endeavors, remember to stay in touch.

Commencement 2004
Division of Science and Math Graduates

Every year the ACM club organizes a year end picnic to celebrate another successful year. The ByteBash is a popular event every year, providing students with an early dinner, entertainment and a chance to relax away from computers and classrooms.

The 2004 picnic was held in Green River park and featured a lively game of ultimate frisbee.

ByteBash Pictures

The Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium (MICS) is a regional conference dedicated to providing higher education participants an educational experience focused on the integration of computer-based technology in the teaching and learning processes of all disciplines and the incorporation of the study of this technology in the curriculum. MICS is an interdisciplinary symposium that strongly encourages submissions from all disciplines, programs, and services at both two-year and four-year institutions.

The symposium was established in 1967 and is one of the nation’s oldest conferences, focusing on sharing creative thinking about computer-related issues and their opportunities and implementation at institutions of higher education.

39th Annual MICS Conference 2004 was hosted at UMM and had a record number of submissions as well as a very well received programming and robotics contest.

Official MICS site
MICS Pictures

The ACM-ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest is an anual programming contest sponsored by the ACM and IBM. It is held on the same day around the world with teams of three trying to get as many of the six to nine problems assigned to them done within a five hour work period.

UMM once again acted as site host for this years competition. Nine teams from around the state of Minnesota, including three local teams met in the Science Atrium for the event.

At the end of the event, UMM's "Ten Digit Integer" (Alex Jarvis, Ellery Crane and Dan Harms) had taken site second, "Team Diesel" (Eugene Michtchenko, Adam Rowe and Matt Fair) third and the "Discalceate Boondogglers" (Aaron Price, Mike Maurer, and Rory Johnson) fifth place.

Official ACM Contest Site
Contest Pictures
UMM Contest Page

The Digi-Key Collegiate Computer Competition is an annual event held at Digi-Key headquarters in Thief River Falls, MN. It brings teams from around the state to compete in a three and a half hour competition spanning three categories of problems with cash prizes for the winning teams and their respective universities.

At this years competition, eleven teams from nine universities took part with UMM sent two teams. The "Discalceate Boondogglers" (Aaron Price, Mike Maurer, Aaron Stricker and Rory Johnson) took third, winning $600 for the discipline and $50 each, while "Ten Digit Integer" (Alex Jarvis, Ellery Crane, Wayne Manselle and Dan Harms) took fifth.

Official Digi-Key Competition Site
University Newsletter
UMM Contest Page