[10/26/2009]    Engineering students to compete in ''Battle of the Brains''

University Park, Pa. — Three students will represent Penn State at the regional round of the 34th annual IBM-sponsored Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest, "Battle of the Brains," at Youngstown State University in Ohio on Oct. 21.

The team will challenge other students from universities in approximately 90 countries. The group has been lead by Steven Shaffer, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, since 2003.
During the competition, the competing teams are expected to use their programming skills to solve complex, real world problems on a single computer under a five-hour deadline.

"Qualifying for the Battle of the Brains is a huge accomplishment," said Alan Ganek, chief technology officer and vice president of strategy for business and technology at IBM Software Group, who is sponsoring the event. "These students are tremendously talented and have the ability to solve incredibly difficult problems. They have the ability to make our lives richer and our planet smarter."

The top 100 teams, who solve the most problems correctly in the least amount of time, will win a spot at the world finals on Feb. 1-6, 2010, in Harbin, China. They will compete for awards, scholarships and prizes.