The Purple team, as they are known, advanced to the worlds by placing third in the regional contest. As the information age races on, three UW students are positioned to lead the pack. The competition, run by the Association for Computing Machinery and sponsored by IBM, serves to discover and develop computer science talent for upcoming generations. Having established the contest in 1970, ACM boasts the oldest and largest programming competition at the collegiate level. Over 6,000 students from all over the world have competed this year at the event's local and regional levels.
Students compete in three-person teams.
These teams then participated in a regional contest in Bellingham. From a 61-team pool, both groups from UW finished in the top four. Since just one team from each school can advance to the world finals, UW's Purple Team will be flying to Orlando to battle for the summit of a 60-team field. This is the first year that Vargas and Huff have entered the contest, although Allen previously competed as an undergraduate. Vargas expressed gratitude for Allen's previous experience.