CMU-Q teams win competition in OmanDOHA: Two groups of computer science programmers from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) beat 24 teams to win the 2013 Oman Collegiate Programming Contest recently held at the Sultan Qaboos University.

Held under the patronage of Sayyid Faisal bin Turki bin Mahmoud Al Said, CEO of Oman Brand Management Unit, teams representing 18 colleges from Oman and the GCC participated in the five-hour competition. 

The teams of three were given a set of nine problems to try to solve in JAVA, C or C++ using a single computer. 

They were ranked according to the most problems solved. The teams which  solved the same number of problems were ranked based on the time they took. At the end of the competition, the top five teams each solved four problems. 

Team Brainiacs and Kufta from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar finished first and second, respectively, with the former solving the first problem in less than eight minutes. 

Team Brainiacs comprised senior students Fahim Dalvi, Anas Halbawi and Baljit Singh, while Team Kufta included Talal Al Haddad, Ahmad Al Salama and Manoj Reddy. “We hope to do great in the Gulf Programming Competition in Abu Dhabi in March as well,” said Reddy, who was elated after the results were announced.

Both CMU-Q teams solved each of the four problems in less than an hour.  Collegiate programming contests pit teams of students against each other as they work to solve the most problems in the shortest amount of time. Since the problems are often modelled after real-world issues, such competitions serve as a testing ground for young computer scientists to put their knowledge into action.

The Peninsula