Cornell University and Cornell Tech Host Joint High School Programming Contest

For the first time, the Annual Cornell University High School Programming Contest teamed up with Cornell Tech to host simultaneous events on each campus.

The contest, the brain child of CIS faculty member Robbert Van Renesse, aims to encourage high school students interested in computer science and programming.

Teams of two to three students had three hours to solve as many of the 12 problems provided as possible. For each correct solution, a team received a color coded balloon.

On the Cornell Tech campus there were 38 teams representing 15 high schools from four boroughs, Long Island and New Jersey.

Awards for gold, silver, and bronze were awarded to the teams in each location who solved the most problems, as well as a trophy for the overall winner across both campuses.

The team from Princeton High School took home the overall award, solving 12 out of 12 problems. Teams from Trinity HS and Stuyvesant High School took home the NYC silver and gold, respectively.

The problem set was created by Daniel Fleischman, ORIE PhD ’15, who has helped run the competition with Van Renesse since its inception. Fleischman himself was an enthusiastic programming contestant as an undergrad and flew in to support the Cornell Tech event this year. His insider knowledge and joy played a huge role in the day’s success.

“It was really exciting to see this community of young coders come together to compete with so much talent and enthusiasm,” Sr. Director of K-12 Education at Cornell Tech, and the organizer of the New York City event, Diane Levitt said. “This is a perfect example of Cornell impact: when our campuses collaborate, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.