On Saturday, April 25, the WVU Tech Department of Computer Science and Information Systems will host a programming competition designed to put high school students’ programming and logic skills to the test.

During the event, competing teams will have four hours to apply their problem-solving abilities to a series of ten programming problems. The top finishing teams will walk away with cash prizes and WVU Tech scholarships worth up to $1,000 (third place), $2,000 (second place), and $3,000 (first place) per qualifying, accepted student.

“The demand for programmers is at an all-time high, and that demand will continue to rise in the next five to ten years,” said Dr. Matthew Williamson, the competition’s organizer and professor in the WVU Tech Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.

“If we can expose high school students to the field of computer science and get them interested, we can meet this demand, especially in West Virginia. Our state would substantially benefit from having more programmers,” he said.

Five teams from three high schools – including a school in North Carolina – are already registered to compete, although Dr. Williamson said the competition is still accepting teams. Attending high school faculty will also be able to enroll in a free C# programming workshop during the competition.

For more information, visit: http://engineering.wvutech.edu/prog-competition.