OBU Students Place at Regional Computer Competition

Article Date

November 21, 2005

Five OBU computer students recently attended the Association of Information Technology Professionals Region Three Student conference in Abilene, Texas, and received awards in two competitions.

The three-day conference was held Oct. 27 - 29 and was attended by approximately 200 faculty, professionals and students from various colleges.

OBU students participating in the AITP conference were Tim Aitken, a computer information systems major from Tulsa, Okla.; Micah Jones, a computer science major from Mansfield, Texas; Andy Lau, a physics and math double major from Chickasha, Okla.; Adam G. Ray, a computer information systems major from Weatherford, Okla.; and Philip Rowland, a computer science data management major from Claremore, Okla. They were accompanied by Dale Hanchey, OBU's McCasland associate professor of computer science, who serves as OBU's AITP faculty advisor.

Jones and Rowland placed second in C++ programming out of 14 teams. Jones and Lau placed third in the Visual Basic programming competition out of 17 teams.

"For a small private school like us, this is a big deal," said Jones, president of OBU's AITP student chapter. "This speaks well of OBU's computer science department. It proves that we can hold our own against many of the best state schools."

"I'm proud of our results," said Rowland, vice president of OBU's AITP student chapter. "Especially since this was the first competition for any of our current AITP members."

Members of the OBU AITP student chapter will also attend the National AITP student conference in Dallas, Texas, March 30 through April 1, 2006.

Complete conference results are listed on the AITP website at http://www.aitp.org/newsletter/newsarticle.jsp?article=120.