Google hosts ‘Coding Jam’ for computer programming students

Students from BYU and UVU attended a coding competition on Sept. 19 that was hosted by Google and BYU’s Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) club.

The BYU ACM club  is a chapter of the national ACM organization created for programmers.

The club  invited four Google recruiters to host the event, all of whom also gave students the opportunity to speak with them and ask questions.

The competition was timed and lasted an hour. The students were given two story problems, that described an input such as a command or the entering of data, and the students had to create a program or output in order to solve the story problem.

Students were also required to create a program that would find the most efficient route to get from one bus stop to another from a list of bus routes.

One of the winners of the competition was Stephen Cowley, a freshman computer science major  at BYU. He won the grand prize, a Google Home Mini, for his inputs being finished on time and for having no failed attempts.

“I enjoyed the event. I love it when Google comes to campus,” said Cowley. “I am a part of BYU’s ACM club so I always attend their coding competitions.”

Cowley also mentioned that in order to solve the problems, he had to make sure that there was both a smaller and larger input.

Other students enjoyed the event as well, such as Tira Draper, a junior computer engineering major at BYU.

“I thought the event was great,” Tira said. “I thought the problems were hard, [but] everyone thought it was difficult. It’s just a lengthy process.”

Draper also said that she follows the BYU ACM club, and regularly attends their various coding competitions.

“Our goal is for students to network with companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.,” said Nathan Geronimo, a computer science major and president of the BYU ACM club. “We personally reach out to recruiters from these companies.”

BYU ACM club will be hosting more coding competitions and network opportunities for both UVU and BYU students in the near future.

Photo courtesy of UVU Marketing Dept.