Seth Kirby rolled into the Windy City for the Illinois Technology Association Tech Challenge and managed to blow away most of his competition.

Kirby, a senior in computer science at the School of Informatics and Computing, finished second at the programming skills challenge in Chicago in early November, earning $2,000 in prize money. The ITA Tech Challenge tested competitors’ ability to solve problems using programming languages.

Kirby was happy with his result but far from satisfied.

“I came into the competition with tentative confidence, looking both to test and prove myself,” Kirby says. “I've done the first, but I still don't feel like I have done the second. Plus, this is the first time a non-Illinois college has placed and the first time Indiana University has placed, both of which I'm extremely proud of. I hope next year we can keep that streak going and start climbing up through the ranks at ITA.”

Kirby finished second out of 48 competitors who had passed an initial qualifying exam, a test which had been taken by nearly 500 competitors. Kirby correctly completed all seven questions in the final, but he finished 32 minutes behind the winner of the competition.

“This was the first year more than one student completed all the questions correctly at the competition, and the results for the top three ended up coming down to time,” Kirby says. “Mostly I'm left with a huge sense of pride and a desire to come back more competent, more prepared, and with a better strategy for the next competition.”

The ITA Tech Challenge featured contestants from 15 universities, and all of the Tech Challenge finalists were paired for interviews with sponsoring companies seeking interns and full-time employees. Kirby already has built his résumé through internships with Google and Intel, but his participation in coding competitions has expanded his skills.

“Competing has always had a place in my life,” Kirby says. “Programming contests seemed like a fun way to push my skills at solving technical problems in a fun atmosphere.”

Kirby also made a strong showing in the regionals of the ACM-International Collegiate Programming Contest. SoIC sent three teams to the Cincinnati branch of the East Central North American Regional contest, and the “Cream” team made up of computer science undergraduates Kirby, Thijs Benschop, and Jonathan Wegener finished in the top five. The Cream team attempted four of nine offered questions, getting three of them correct—an IU record. They were among just 12 teams at the site to get as many as three questions correct.

The “Bloomington” team was unique in that it was an all-woman group, a first for IU. Dimana Tzvetkova, Ivy Murphy, and Erin Leonhard managed to answer one question and finished 19th at the regional site. The “Crimson” squad of Paul Logan, Juan Zapata, and Ben Brattain gained important experience in the competition.

“I’m an enormous advocate for women in computing and in the technical field,” Murphy says. “Being on the first all-woman team from IU to compete at this competition was an absolutely incredible feeling. As the minority, it feels at times that we are not taken as seriously. After this experience, my confidence got a huge boost.”

Christopher Raphael, a professor of informatics and one of the coordinators of the teams at IU, was impressed with results.

“The ICPC does a great job of posing problems that require students to think creatively and independently,” Raphael says. “The experience is an excellent opportunity for students to develop their algorithmic talents as well as preparing for job interviews where coding questions are often asked.”

The AMC-ICPC world finals are scheduled to be held May 15-20, 2016, in Phuket, Thailand.