Computer science students Brian Barak ’25, Thomas Meeks and Benjamin Prins competed as Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ Triangulate, one of the 52 university teams at the NAC who earned the chance to compete for a spot internationally from an original field of about 1,000 from the U.S. and Canada. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ placed No. 5, earning the opportunity to head to Dubai in November to compete at the 50th annual ICPC World Finals.

The trio placed ahead of the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Florida, the other two schools in the contest’s southeast region. They also beat Ivy League universities and colleges with notable computer science programs, including California Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University.

“The contest has grown from a few hundred students to almost 100,000 students. It’s getting harder and more challenging each year to outperform others,” says Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ programming team faculty advisor Ali Orooji.  “We are very proud of our students and coaches who put in the time and effort to do well in the contest.”

ICPC student programmers are among the best in the world. At Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝, competitors are often recruited for their contest experience by companies such as Google and Microsoft, attracted by contestants’ proven ability to collaborate under pressure on advanced algorithms.

“The training offered by [our computer programming teams’] coaches is exceptional, and our competitors’ commendable work ethic and skills continue to draw the attention of the tech industry to our college.” — Michael Georgiopoulos, CECS dean

“Our programming team continues to make us proud with their latest accomplishment,” says College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Michael Georgiopoulos. “They are establishing a legacy of excellence in programming for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝. The training offered by their coaches is exceptional, and our competitors’ commendable work ethic and skills continue to draw the attention of the tech industry to our college.”

During the contest, the competitors have five hours to answer a series of logic problems that require developing algorithms to solve. The problems are based on real-world scenarios such as modeling air traffic flow, optimizing security for an art gallery, and tracking animals in a wildlife preserve. Teams of three collaborate on one computer to solve the most problems in the least amount of time.

Barak, Meeks and Prins solved nine out of the 13 problems, and were the first to solve problem K.

“I think we had several advantages over other North America teams going into the contest that played a part in our team’s performance: a phenomenal support structure with the dedicated coaches, especially our team’s coach Glenn Martin ’92 ’95MS ’12PhD; access to the programming team lab; and support from the rest of the team,” Meeks says.

He adds that frequent and consistent twice-weekly practice and training on challenging problems from ICPC training camp sets and the Universal Cup, a nonprofit organization that provides resources for competitive programmers, also contributed to their success.

“Several years of being on a team together helped us form a strong and efficient team dynamic,” he says.

Hosted by Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ for the past six years, the NAC attracts a number of sponsors who recognize the contest as an opportunity to meet the next generation of talented programmers. This year’s contest sponsors included Jane Street, OpenAI, JetBrains, Jump Trading, Citadel, the National Security Agency, Hudson River Trading and Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society.

“I’m fond of radio because in my family, everyone is using the radio,” he says. “My grandfather was fond of radio. He also used to listen to songs every day in the morning. My mother also likes the radio while she’s cooking or doing some house chores.”

Chougule’s whole life has been about bringing people together, whether through a new antenna or a new AR app he built that allows you to find your car or friends. Now, as this computer science graduate starts FIEA in the programming track, he acknowledges the role his family plays back home.

“Most of the [Indian] parents don’t allow their children to play the games, because they take a lot of time,” Chougule says. “My parents are completely free and they have always given me the freedom to choose whichever stream I wish to go.”

This is not the typical reaction from most parents in India. “I will say the game development, the perception towards gaming in general in India is negative by Indian parents,” Chougule says.

Which is one of the reasons why he’s excited to come to the U.S. and continue his studies at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝.

“It’s my dream to build engaging games for consoles and mobile devices,” he says. “Later, with my experience, I want to become an entrepreneur. I am pretty sure that I’ll meet like-minded students during my education at FIEA.”

“It’s my dream to build engaging games for consoles and mobile devices.”

Chougule has already established quite a reputation as an app developer. Inspired by the frustrations of many people at Shivaji University (where he graduated in 2016) who forgot where they parked their bike or vehicle, he created a cross-platform, augmented-reality app that helps track your vehicle’s location.

“Whenever you are leaving your vehicle, you just press one button which calculates your current latitude, longitude and altitude,” says Chougule of the app called OmniLocator. “And then there is another button called Track Vehicle. When you press that, it opens a camera view where you can turn your phone and when the vehicle gets into the field of view, it gets detected and it tells you that your car is here.”

Chougule thinks he might one day return home to help improve the perceptions of game developers in India. “The scene is changing,” Chougule says. “And now Ubisoft, Rockstar Games and Electronic Arts all have their studios in India. India is slowly adapting to the gaming culture.”

That’s music to Chougule’s ears.

The Central Florida Future had the opportunity to interview Mayeres to see what a day in the life of a software developer intern is like.

Central Florida Future: What do you hope to pursue with your computer sciences degree?

Mayeres: I want to be a software developer. The field is always changing, so I hope to be able to be on the leading edge of developing new technologies and software.

CFF: Why computer sciences?

Mayeres: I have always been interested in computers. I started in middle school; programming little things, making websites. I went to a high school that had a computer science track, and I’ve stuck with it through college. It’s fun; it’s my passion. I’ve known for years that I wanted to be a software developer.

CFF: What do you do as a software developer?

Mayeres: I develop code that supports the Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) program.

CFF: How/when did you get the job?

Mayeres: I actually had this job last summer as well. I had applied for internships at Lockheed Martin and finally got a phone interview for this job, and they hired me. After that was done, they offered me another position for this year.

CFF: Tell me about a typical day at your job.

Mayeres: It’s more relaxed than it sounds. I come in (after driving 40 miles and getting past the badge check), go to my computer, catch up on emails and start working. Part of the job requires researching what I need to do exactly to get the job done (look at old code, find out who to talk to, write out a plan). It’s not all coding, though; there’s a lot of documentation that gets written, and I also have chats with others about how to do something or what needs to be in that program.

CFF: What do you like most about your job?

Mayeres: It’s hard to say; I really like the people I work with, the location and the job itself. Everyone is really nice and friendly. I get to work at one of the most famous locations and see some amazing things like the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building going to/from work, the Atlas and Delta launch facilities, the shuttle launch pad and the hangar where the solid rocket boosters come back from the recovery ships. And I get amazing experience in my field.

CFF: What is it like to work so closely to the Kennedy Space Center buildings?

Mayeres: It’s exciting for me. I drive past them every day, and I feel humbled to get to go by them every day. I’ve had lunch on several occasions at the NASA cafeteria, and it’s cool to know that the people eating there are all part of the space program. I’ve gotten tours (last year) of the Space Station Processing Facility [where I] walked on the floor, past such things as the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, the United Launch Alliance facilities, the Atlas V Vertical Integration Facility, control/launch rooms, and the Delta IV launch pad, under a Delta IV Heavy rocket, among other things. It was all really cool.

CFF: Did you enjoy watching the shuttle launch when you were younger?

Mayeres: I loved shuttle launches. I’m from Palm Beach County, and we could see the shuttle launches all the way down there. It’s great to be so close now, but I am truly sad to see the shuttle program end.

CFF: Has there been a shuttle launch when you were working? Describe the experience.

Mayeres: My first day this summer was the launch of STS-134 (Endeavour’s [second-to-last] launch). Everyone walked out of the office a few minutes before launch and walked (a short walk) to the NASA Causeway, where we got to see the launch from up close. It was cloudy, so we saw maybe the first 20 seconds of it, but the sound was intense.

CFF: Have you met anyone well-known in the shuttle/missile community?

Mayeres: Not sure about that, I think I met a payload manager for the shuttle.

CFF: How has your time at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ prepared you for this job?

Mayeres: I’ve learned some valuable things in my CS classes, but probably the most valuable time was spent with the office of Experiential Learning, where they helped me with my rĂ©sumĂ©, which I didn’t even know had problems. I credit that help to getting me this position, even though I got my internship directly through Lockheed.

Source: Central Florida Future, , by Brandi Broxson, news editor. Published: Sunday, June 5, 2011; Updated: Sunday, June 5, 2011 21:06