UBC News Digest

The UBC News Digest is a weekly summary of news stories about UBC people, research, learning, community, and internationalization initiatives. News Digest past issues are also available on-line.

Nov. 19, 2004

• UBC’s Programming Brains Reclaim Top Spot in Pacific Northwest Division
• Business Students Win Capstone International Challenge
• Campus United Way Effort Surpasses the Halfway Mark

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UBC’s Programming Brains Reclaim Top Spot in Pacific Northwest Division

UBC's top programming team beat out 77 other teams to reclaim first place in the Pacific Northwest Division at the annual Association for Computing Machinery Programming Competition held November 13th in Portland, Oregon and sponsored by IBM.

UBC's top two teams beat the traditional powerhouse teams of Stanford and Berkeley in the Pacific Northwest Division completing 10 problems in three and a half hours. That left team members Igor Naverniouk, Frank Chu and Bartholomew Furrow 1.5 hours to kick back and wait to celebrate their win because, mathematically, they had calculated that given the time left, no other team would be able to touch them.

Each of the three team members on UBC's first place team are seasoned veterans of the regional competition. Team member Igor Naverniouk is working on a Master's in computer science, Frank Pok Man Chu is in his final year of a Bachelor of Science degree and hoping to be accepted to Princeton next year, while Bartholomew Furrow, is a Masters student in physics who transferred to UBC from Queens University and was on the Queen's team that placed 12th at the finals in Prague last year.

UBC had three teams participating in the regional competition with the third place team competing online while physically remaining in the department of computer science building on the UBC campus. UBC's third team placed 17th.

For more information on the competition visit: http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/.

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Business Students Win Capstone International Challenge

UBC business students Matthew Gardner and Morgan Gough, both students of professor Peter Nemetz, amassed $171 million in profit for their virtual company to win the annual Capstone International Challenge, sponsored by Management Simulations, Inc.

Students managed competing, simulated companies, making all the management decisions that real companies make. The event included more than 500 schools worldwide. The competition for the 11 finalists took place over the course of two days and simulated managing a company for a business cycle of eight years.

Management Simulations is the leading virtual business simulation program provider worldwide and works with more than 500 universities including Northwestern University and Vanderbilt, as well as countless leading businesses such as Allstate, General Electric, General Motors, TransUnion and PricewaterhouseCoopers. More information about the company is available from at http://www.capsim.com.

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Campus United Way Effort Surpasses the Halfway Mark

Mid-way through the 2004 UBC United Way campaign to raise $525,000, things are rolling along smoothly, says Stan Auerbach, chair of this year’s campaign.

“Support from the campus community has been tremendous,” Auerbach says. “We’re more than halfway to our goal and the donations continue to come in.”

Auerbach says one of the reasons this year’s campaign is continuing to build on the success of previous years is the participation of campus staff in presentations hosted by this year’s UBC Loaned Representative, Debra Elliott.

“The presentations go beyond United Way’s website [www.unitedway.ubc.ca] and brochures by incorporating a personal story and further insight as to where your dollars go,” Elliott says. “It’s also an opportunity to answer any questions donors have.”

Elliott says the length of a presentation varies from five minutes to 20, depending on the time available and the needs of the department. Some departments choose to show the United Way video, others include an agency speaker, and some are more informal and just ask for a brief introduction to United Way.

There is still time to book a presentation for your department. Elliott is available until mid-December, and donations will be accepted until the end of the tax year, December 31.

For more information about this year’s campaign, or to book a presentation, please contact Liz King, Campaign Coordinator at 604-822-8929 or by e-mail at united.way@ubc.ca.

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