On Friday, Dec. 1, six students from the Southwest programming club took part in a computer programming competition at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The students who attended were sophomores Jamison Dixon, Clark Gardner, Conor Schultz, junior David Ibe-Ikechi, and seniors Alex Schwarz and Konstantin Petrov. They were joined by the club sponsor Mr. Scott Handelman.

“There were schools from all across Nebraska,” Schwarz said. “My favorite thing was being able to talk and meet new people.”

The competition took place in two parts. The first part was a quiz bowl where students answered technology-related trivia questions. The Southwest students were split into two teams of three, with one team placing 7 and one team placing 9 out of 25 total teams. For the second competition, all teams were given a set of 14 questions to solve in three hours. Scores were determined according to the quality of the programming they submitted. The Southwest teams placed 6 and 10 in this portion.

“Out of the six students that I took, only two of them have taken a programming course here at Southwest,” Handelman said. “I feel pretty good about the competition. Most of those students have never done anything like it. I think they left saying to themselves, ‘Now we know what it’s like and we can come back next year.’”

Programming club meets on Thursdays at 3 p.m. in room C208. Students of any skill level who are interested in computer science are welcome to join.