Computing students excel in programming contest

Sound computing knowledge and strong teamwork have earned a team of three Department of Computer Science students the championship in the IBM Inter-University Programming Contest 2009.

Beating 36 teams of students from universities in Hong Kong and Macau, the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) team comprising Chris Lam Jung-yu, Chung Wing-ho and Anthony Lau Wai-ho scored highest by solving a set of real-world problems within the two-hour timeframe.

The contest last month tested university students’ knowledge and application of the latest relational database and web application development technology, namely IBM DB2 UDB and IBM WebSphere Application Server.

The team felt their technical prowess and team spirit were a key to their success. “We allocated different tasks among us,” said Chris. “We trust each other and didn’t waste time arguing over answers.”

Besides a trophy and a cash award of HK$30,000, the team has the chance to join the two-month Summer Internship Programme at IBM. “It will give us a valuable opportunity to learn how a sizable company like IBM operates and receive professional training in addition to our current studies,” Anthony added.