CCSCNE 2011 - Prog. Contest Rules

Programming Contest Rules

These rules are derived from the ACM programming contest's.

Team Coach: A faculty member who is the official contact for the team and certifies that the team members are eligible. The coach must be registered to attend the conference.
3 Students: Each student must be at least a half-time student at the institution being represented and must have first started post secondary education no earlier than 8 years before the contest is held. If a student does not meet these eligibility criteria the coach may request a waiver. Students must register to attend the conference.

Solutions to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged as accepted or rejected by a judge, and the team is notified of the results.
Public notification of accepted runs may be suspended at an appropriate time to keep the final results secret. The submitting team will still be notified of acceptance or rejection. A general announcement to that effect will be made during the contest.
A contestant may submit a claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement by submitting a clarification request to a judge. If the judges agree that an ambiguity or error exists, a clarification will be issued to all contestants.
Contestants are not to converse with anyone except members of their team and contest facilitators.
While the contest is scheduled for a particular time length, 3 hours, the judges have the authority to alter the length of the contest in the event of unforeseen difficulties. Should the contest duration be altered, every attempt will be made to notify contestants in a timely and uniform manner.
A team may be disqualified by the judges for any activity that jeopardizes the contest such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification of contest materials, or distracting behavior.
At least six problems will be posed. So far as possible, problems will avoid dependence on detailed knowledge of a particular applications area or particular contest language.

A problem is solved when it is accepted by the judges. The judges are solely responsible for accepting or rejecting submitted runs.
Teams are ranked by the number of problems solved, with ties broken in favor of the lowest total time used. The time taken to solve a problem is measured from the start of the contest to the submission of the accepted run. Teams are not penalized for incorrect submissions.

The programming languages of the contest are Java and C/C++.
The operating system is Windows XP.
The available editors are Microsoft Visual Studio (both version 6 and .Net 2005) and Eclipse & JCreator.
The contest software is a Web-based application developed at Western New England College. A practice shell will be made available before the contest.
Submissions, and all communication, between the teams and the judges will occur via the contest software.
Each team will use a single workstation.
Each team may bring printed materials to the contest. No electronic media will be allowed, including cellphones, pdas, etc. Internet access will not be allowed during the contest.

If irregularities or misconduct are observed during the contest, please bring this to the attention of contest officials as soon as possible.