A select group of students used last weekend to put their intelligence to the test in a Battle of the Brains.

In this contest, the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest challenges teams of three to use their programming skills and rely on mental endurance to solve complex, real-world problems under a grueling five-hour deadline.

Six ISU teams traveled to Lincoln, Neb., for the Battle of the Brains regional competition. 

Out of all the teams in the world competing, the top 100 finalist teams will earn the chance to travel to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to compete for awards and prizes. The people competing on these teams represent universities from six continents.

Simanta Mitra, senior lecturer of computer science, is the coach for ISU’s competing teams. He became the coach when he became an adviser of the ISU Computer Science and Software Engineering Club about eight years ago. He does not like to consider himself so much a coach as a helper or an adviser, helping to “facilitate the process” of preparing the students for competition.

“This is a great competition for the students,” Mitra said. “It takes all the information a student would have learned in a whole semester and challenges them for all of their knowledge and skills in one afternoon. Many times we will have the very best students, and they get great experience out of doing this.”

The regional contest began at 12:30 p.m. with teams huddled around tables and one laptop, trying to figure out a booklet of 8 to 10 programming problems. Each team had the same problems. Once a team thought it solved the problems, it would submit the problems to the panel of judges. Judges quickly went through the problems and let the students know if they were right or wrong.

If the problems were wrong, students were to go back to the table and figure out the problem again. This process continued until the judges deemed the problems to be correct. Points were totaled based on timing and how many attempts it took the team to get the problems correct.

In order to prepare for competition, student-led practice sessions are conducted. Seniors and juniors will often lead these sessions and teach the younger students what types of programming problems will be given to them. They also advise on what strategies work best, and some students will even go online to practice more problems.

On their way to the competition in the past, ISU contestants have spent the whole way working together to solve problems they come up with. Gloria Cain, undergraduate adviser of computer science, has accompanied the teams in the past.

“I remember there was a senior in the front seat, and he was just giving out problems upon problems to the students sitting in the back,” Cain said. “They all had their laptops out and were doing the problems together, and it was great because this was how they got to know each other. They became friends and became a team.”