DHS Computer Programmers Prevail at UC Davis Competition
By Katie Van Deynze
HUB Correspondent–The Davis Senior High School Computer programming, or C-STEM team took first at the UC Davis Annual Secondary Programming Competition on April 30th. Deanna Cheng, Brandon Lin, and Sebastian Xu were the members of the winning team, which was supervised by Ryan Carr.
According to the UCD website, the competition provides secondary school students with the opportunity to apply computer programming skills including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The competition lasted three hours, in which the teams were to complete as many problems as possible on their computer, and points were awarded for fully completed problems.
Despite having no background in computer programming or engineering, Carr, a teacher at the DHS learning center, volunteered to act as the teacher advisor to the DHS team of three. Carr said he and the team did not know what to expect of the level of competition.
“I guess they would head and shoulders above everyone else,” said Carr.
The team includes programmers of varying experience levels, from experienced to novice programmers.
Senior Deanna Cheng is the president of the Best Buddies Club at the high school. The club helps students with developmental disabilities get involved in different activities. Xu started programming at the beginning of the school year, and Cheng thought it would be a fun idea to help him enter the competition as a club function.
Cheng started learning programming from the books and sample problems that the competition provided.
The members practiced the two Saturdays before the competition. During those practices, “we learned what each person’s strengths and weaknesses were so we would work together well at the competition,” Cheng said.
Harper Junior High Freshmen Brandon Lin was the most experienced with computer programming, and had been programming for many years now.
