Delivery-Date: Mon Sep  8 22:56:15 2008
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 22:55:23 -0700
From: Bill Cheng <william@bourbon.usc.edu>
Message-Id: <200809090555.m895tNZg016548@bourbon.usc.edu>
To: akaminsk@usc.edu, alexl@usc.edu, cciongol@usc.edu, cs551@merlot.usc.edu,
        cs558l@merlot.usc.edu, dvanhorn@usc.edu, jkershaw@usc.edu,
        josuemar@usc.edu, kevinski@usc.edu, mmccann@usc.edu, rogerh@usc.edu,
        sljackso@usc.edu, smithmic@usc.edu, usc-cs-531@googlegroups.com,
        william@bourbon.usc.edu
Subject: FWD: USC Programming Contest

Hi everyone,

Please see the information below regarding the USC
Programming Contest.  You are encouraged to participate
if you have time!

Please note that participating in this contest does *not*
execuse you from turning in assignments late (sorry)!
--
Bill Cheng // bill.cheng@usc.edu <URL:http://merlot.usc.edu/william/usc/>


  -----Original Message-----
  Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:34:59 -0700 (PDT)
  From: Sven Koenig <skoenig@usc.edu>
  To: chengw@usc.edu
  Cc: Sven Koenig <skoenig@usc.edu>
  Subject: Re: USC Programming Contest

  USC Programming Contest
  
  Saturday, September 20, 2008 in RTH 105/115
  practice (1-2pm) and contest (2-6pm), followed by pizza
  www.cs.usc.edu/contest
  
  organized by David Kempe, Sven Koenig and Upsilon Pi Epsilon
  from the USC Computer Science Department
  
  Have fun!
  Extend your resume!
  Show how smart you are!
  Impress your friends!
  Win cash and other prizes!
  Represent USC at the ACM Programming Contest!
  
  Do you like to solve problems like the following ones?
  
    To pay your friends a dollar, you can give them, for example, four
    quarters, or five dimes and ten nickels. Write a program that
    calculates how many different combinations of coins there are that
    make up a given amount of money from pennies, nickels, dimes and
    quarters.
  
    You are given the description of a lake as a polygon, as well as
    your own position in a boat somewhere on the lake. When you throw a
    rock in the water, the waves travel away from the impact point at a
    speed of 1 meter per second. Write a program to calculate the
    earliest time at which a wave will hit the shore.
  
    You are given the names of n people, who are to be divided into k
    alphabetical segments, for instance, to stand in line for
    registration at USC. An "alphabetical segment" consists of all
    people whose last name starts with a letter between two given
    endpoints (for example, D-H). Write a program that finds a division
    into k alphabetical segments such that each person is in exactly one
    segment, and the number of people in the largest segment is
    minimized.
  
  Participate in the USC Programming Contest! The contest is open to all
  undergraduate and graduate USC students, regardless of major, as long
  as they were born in 1985 or later.
  
  We use the USC Programming Contests to pick students that we train for
  the ACM Regional Programming Contest later in during the Fall
  semester. Find out more by visiting the contest webpage
  
  www.cs.usc.edu/contest
  
  If you would like to keep updated about the contest, please sign up
  for our mailing list at
  
  groups.yahoo.com/group/usc-programmingcontest
  
  Please contact Prof. David Kempe (dkempe@usc.edu) with any questions
  and to register for the contest. Registration deadline is September
  18, 2008.