Two teams of AU undergraduates won first and third place in the first U.S.-Russia Codeathon competition, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department.
The 30-hour “coding marathon” was held simultaneously in D.C. and Moscow from Sept. 24 to Sept. 25.
The event, dubbed Code4Country, was a public-private initiative that connected American and Russian computer science students, programmers and software developers. The event encouraged them to design innovative software programs that could promote open governance in both countries, according to a USAID press release.
Fifteen teams of coders in D.C. and Moscow were linked via live video simulcast to create a unique and interactive environment. AU hosted the D.C. Codeathon in the Mary Graydon University Center.
“For me, it was a no brainer in terms of getting involved,” said first place finisher Mike Whitfield, a senior computer science and business major. “This is something that USAID and the State Department should keep doing because there is a lot of interest from students.”
Whitfield said he and his teammates, Bo Banducci, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Alex Battaglia, a senior in the School of International Service, designed a program that allows citizens to easily search and decipher the legal jargon in legislation that is relevant to them at the municipal, state and federal levels.
“We did a few hours of planning, about three hours of planning to fully explore what we were trying to build,” Whitfield said. His team spent roughly 24 hours developing the program.
AU’s third place team created a D.C. crime tracker program. The team members were Cameron Cook, Alex Lubinsky, James Matthews, Matt McClure, Will Mecklenburg, Will Peterson, Emily Traebert and Nathaniel Waggoner.
Waggoner, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the software allows individuals to search and view detailed data of every crime that occurred in D.C. on a density heat map.
Dr. Eric Rudenshiold of USAID commended the participants’ work.
“A number of the Codeathon products are extremely promising, and we believe they may well be used by different groups both in the U.S. and Russia,” he wrote in an email.
Waggoner hopes the recognition from this competition will be a springboard for growth in the computer science department.
“The fact that we placed was really important to me,” Waggoner said. “It’s an opportunity to show how strong our computer science department is.”
Professor U.J. Sofia, who chairs the Department of Physics and Computer Science, expressed similar sentiments.
“It’s a giant peacock feather in our cap,” Sofia wrote in an email. “AU’s finishing first and third in the competition says to me that our students are performing at a very high level.”
Waggoner praised the talent and commitment of the students and faculty, but was frank about his thoughts on the Department of Computer Science being “an underserved department.”
“Something like this is a powerful way for us to market the department, get more staff and more facilities,” he said.
AU’s computer science students have demonstrated success in the past. Last year, AU’s student team placed first out of 20 teams competing in a programming contest sponsored by the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, Waggoner said.
USAID also seemed impressed with what the computer science department had to offer. USAID first contacted AU’s computer science department in early August 2011 to host the event and be a partner in the Codeathon, Sofia wrote.
USAID and the State Department will sponsor another coding event in mid-October with a focus on addressing water issues, Whitfield said.
“Our team plans to enter and I’m sure everyone who participated in the first Codeathon will enter as well,” Whitfield said.
