High School Students Return for 17th Annual Regional Secondary School Programming Competition

Members of the winning teamMembers of the top coding team showing their awards.

The School of Computer Science successfully hosted the 17th Annual Windsor Regional Secondary School Computer Programming Competition on Friday, December 9, 2022.

This event, with its two training sessions leading to the official competition day, attracted 30 teams (of 3 students each) from 12 area high schools along with several dedicated teachers, coaches and parents. The teams that participated this year came from as far as Chatham, Sarnia, Leamington, Kingsville and encompassed schools from the Windsor/Tecumseh area, as well.  The students were given 8 problems to solve within 3 hours by coding a solution using a programming language of their choice from C, C++, Java or Python. The winners are determined by the most number of problems solved, and in the case of a tie, the team with the fastest time wins.

The top six winning teams were recognized at the awards ceremony that followed the competition. Every winning team member received a prize comprised of a gift card from Amazon ranging from $125 for first place to $25 for the 6th place winners. In addition, each year the School of Computer Science commits $25,000 in total entrance scholarship funds to encourage students from the top 6 winning teams to join the University of Windsor in any Computer Science Bachelor program being offered.

Marc Dubois, computer science teacher from École secondaire catholique l'Essor, brought 3 keen students.  “I think the students are excited in attending because it gives them out of class experience where they can put their skills to the test, I think they will appreciate the experience irrespective of the results.”

Kingsville District High School computer science teacher, Amanda Fabischek, also brought along 3 students (placed 5th).  “They learn hands-on experience, they get to tour the UWindsor campus and they get to enjoy what they can do with their programming,” says Fabischek.  “This event challenges them and makes them think outside the box and they’ll learn that the smallest mistake matters a lot when they are programming.”

The top teams and their award values are:

1st place “Typewriter Monkeys” from Vincent Massey S.S. ($3000 x 3)
1st place “Prize Cutoff” from Vincent Massey S.S. ( $3000 x 3)
2nd place “Code Ninjas” from Tecumseh Vista Academy Secondary (2000 x 3)
3rd place “Straight Outta Comp Sci from Tecumseh Vista Academy Secondary ($1500 x 3)
4th place “The Five” from Academie St. Cecile I.S. ($1000 x 3)
5th place “Cavs” from Kingsville District S.S. ($750 x 3)
6th place “Silly Java Hippies” St. Patrick’s Catholic High School ($500 x 3)

Winners will be receiving official letters confirming their award value and conditions.

The final scoreboard can be viewed here: https://open.kattis.com/contests/rrs2c6/standings.  

A special welcome goes to St. Patrick’s Catholic High School from Sarnia who ventured this way for their first time.  Kudos to our dedicated staff members at the School of Computer Science with the exceptional abilities to coordinate all the complex efforts required to bring this event together. The participants received a good taste of the School’s hospitality and the UWindsor experience. The School continues to provide its visitors with experience in working on the latest state of the art computing facility available in the Windsor region.

Special thanks for Dr. Ahmad Biniaz for assisting in the training and final competition.  We are also indebted to our numerous student volunteers who assisted during the event.