EngSci Goes to the CS Games

by Kai van Es (EngSci 1T3)

This year, for the first time, a team of Engineering Science students ventured off to Montreal to compete in the Computer Science (CS) Games.  The team—comprised mainly of first year students David Biancolin, Laurie Charpentier, Stefan Hadjis, Kevin Lam, Kai van Es, Kelvin Xu, Zheng Wang and Ritchie Zhao, with the addition of upper years Michael Cornacchia and Elaine Wong—left early on a Friday morning to test their skills against the best of the best in a two-day computer science competition last month.
 
Hosted at the École Polytechnique de Montréal, the CS Games allows teams from universities across Canada to come together and face off in several computer science-based competitions.  While the majority of the games focus on serious topics, the organizers of the CS Games also like to challenge teams in less conventional ways.  This year in relay programming, three students were given three separate problems in three different rooms, and were required to switch rooms every hour.  While these competitions don’t lend themselves to the more conventional style of the ACM competitions, they give the CS Games an added element of breadth that isn’t observed anywhere else.
 
Preparing for such a broad competition is a task that started months before the games with the formation of the team.  It started in late December when Marc Lanctot—the course lecturer for CSC192 and a long-time veteran of the CS Games—approached several former students of his class.  From there a team video was shot, practice began, and everyone was divided into competition groups based on individual strengths.  A special thanks goes out to Marc for organizing the team; if he hadn’t been around, it is likely that the EngSci team never would have made it to the games.
 
In the end, despite the team's excellent preparation, they placed 18th of 23 overall in the competition.  While this fell short of the goal for a podium spot, the team was not disheartened due to very fierce competition they faced.  The majority of the other teams who competed in the games we comprised of third and fourth year computer science students, many of whom were returning for a second, or third year in the competition.  Given these odds, I think the EngSci team deserves a round of applause for managing to beat five teams.
 
Despite a rough first year at the CS Games for the EngSci team, enthusiasm remains high, and the possibility of fielding a team next year looks fairly bright.  And, who knows, we may still get that podium spot.

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