Ricky Lashock of Hazle Township, Pa., Competes in International Collegiate Computer Programming Contest at Wilkes University

2011 Dec 7

Ricky Lashock of Hazle Township, Pa., was one of 75 students from 11 universities to participate in the 35th annual Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Computer Programming Contest held at Wilkes University on Nov. 5, 2011.

Lashock is a senior studying computer science at Wilkes University. He is the son of Rick and Nancy Lashock.

The IBM-sponsored contest challenges students' knowledge and creativity to solve computer programming challenges. It draws participants from a global network of universities that advance from regional competitions to the world finals. The teams are given problems with real-world applicability, such as how to program flight traffic patterns at a modern airport.

The students competed in three-person teams. Winning teams from the regional competition will compete in the world finals being held in May 2012 at the University of Warsaw in Poland.

Gateway Pharmaceuticals of Bucknell University took first place while the teams Lafayette 1 and Lafayette 2 of Lafayette University took second and third, respectively.

The competing teams from Wilkes University were COBOL, consisting of Wilkes students Dakota Cole, Ricky Lashock and Ed Zulkoski; and Code Monkey, including Wilkes students Tim Cheung, Josh Elmore, and Ian McDevitt.

Photo Caption: Front row, left to right, Tim Cheung, Kingston, Pa.; and Ian McDevitt, Albrightsville, Pa. Back row, left to right, Josh Elmore, Shickshinny, Pa.; Dakota Cole, Towanda, Pa.; Ricky Lashock, Hazle Township, Pa.; and Ed Zulkoski, Mountain Top, Pa.