First U.S. team to reach finals of international programming competition places 14th

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- A team of three computer science students from the College of Engineering at the University of North Texas finished 14th among the best 30 teams to compete in the final round of the 6th International 24-hour Programming Contest in Budapest.

Known in the competition as the Texas Codeboys -- the team of Jack Lindamood, Michael Mohler and John Rizzo became the first-ever United States computer programming contestants to reach the final round in the contest. The competition ran from 9 a.m. on April 22 (Saturday) to 9 a.m. on April 23 (Sunday).

This year, 309 teams from nations around the world (including five other United States teams) registered to participate. Of that number, only 150 teams entered the contest's preliminary qualifying event in February, where every team was allotted five hours to solve six programming tasks with variable difficulty.

The UNT team was among the 27 teams with the best scores in the qualifier who, along with three top teams from the 2005 competition, were invited to take part in the final round of the competition at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Contest organizers say the major goal of the competition is to challenge and provide an opportunity for students and industry professionals involved in computer science and programming to measure their knowledge and ability in an extreme environment.

Finalist teams were given a 50-page problem set developed by doctoral students from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. During the 24 hours of the contest, the competing programmers had to perform tasks ranging from the preparation of an imaginary newspaper to managing a virtual country within the frames of a three-dimensional computer game to programming artificial intelligences for a four-round toy car race.

Participants were required to use their own computers, but they were not allowed to access the Internet or use any communication equipment in the course of the competition.

The UNT team traveled to Budapest with their teaching coach/mentor David Keathly, a lecturer in UNT's Computer Science and Engineering Department.

"This was our programming team's first experience with this type of competition and we are all pleased and proud that they did so well as the sole representatives of the U.S. and Texas in a tough international forum," said Dr. Oscar N. Garcia, founding dean of the College of Engineering at UNT.

Lindamood, a senior computer science and engineering major from Dallas, is the son of Johnnie and Marian Lindamood. He attended the Dallas Science and Engineering Magnet High School. He is preparing for a summer internship with Verisign Inc., a company headquartered in California that operates intelligent infrastructure services.

Mohler, a first year graduate student in computer science and engineering from Cedar Hill, is the son of Gaylord and Artie Mohler. He attended Cedar Hill High School. Currently, he is exploring employment possibilities with the National Security Agency.

Rizzo, a junior computer science and mathematics major from Houston, is the son of John and Anita Rizzo of Houston. He attended Kingwood High School in Houston. He will begin an internship with Google this summer in California.