PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 12, 1996 — As part of its continuing commitment to higher education, Microsoft Corp. is again joining with the ACM, the Association for Computing, to present this year’s International Collegiate Programming Contest. Microsoft will also introduce two programs designed to provide faculty and students access to information and tools: the Microsoft®
Developer Curriculum Project and the Microsoft Developer Division Instructional Lab Grant Program.
The ACM Programming Contest, to be held in Philadelphia on Feb. 17, 1996, showcases top collegiate programming talent, giving students a chance to display their knowledge and problem-solving expertise. Teams from 43 schools worldwide will compete for $31,500 in educational scholarships to be divided among the top six teams. In addition to the scholarships, Microsoft will donate software licenses valued at an estimated $12 million (approximate retail prices) to the 1,000 schools that participated in this year’s regional contests.
“Microsoft shares the ACM’s commitment to advancing education and achieving technical excellence in schools,”
said Joel Kanter, academic program manager at Microsoft.
“We consider our ability to provide students and faculty access to the latest tools and technologies to be a key investment in the next generation of the high-technology industry.”
“Today’s students and their faculty mentors are the cornerstone of tomorrow’s software development community,”
said Bill Poucher, ACM contest director and professor of computer science at Baylor University.
“We applaud Microsoft’s leadership in providing the technical foundation and investing in the 1,001 teams competing in the ACM Programming Contest worldwide.”
Microsoft Developer Curriculum Project
The Microsoft Developer Curriculum Project Web site, started in 1995, gives educators access to the information and tools they need to use the newest programming languages and database tools for supporting their courses. The project’s World Wide Web page, located at http://msdeved.isu.edu/ms, links syllabuses and other materials from more than 200 two-year and four-year colleges and universities for courses in computer science, business information, math, sciences and engineering. The courses described on the Web site use Microsoft language and database products to teach all levels of programming skills and software development, as well as to illustrate how to use programming for problem solving. By spring 1996, the Web site will include links to materials for more than 400 courses.
Microsoft Developer Division Instructional Lab Grant Program
The Instructional Lab Grant Program awards software licenses for Microsoft development tools and operating systems to support courses in academic areas such as computer science, business-information technologies, engineering and math. The program, started in the spring of 1995, awards software licenses valued at $20 million to approximately 200 U.S. colleges and universities each year. In return, schools participating in the Lab Grant Program are asked to provide course syllabuses for the Microsoft Developer Curriculum Project. Starting Feb. 15, 1996, interested faculty can access the Microsoft Developer Curriculum Project Web site for the latest information about the Lab Grant Program or to download the online application. The deadline for submitting grant applications is April 30, 1996.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
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The following are the final teams in the 1996 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest sponsored by Microsoft:
Albert-Ludwigs-Freiburg, Germany
Belgrade University, Yugoslavia
California Institute of Technology
Carleton College
Carnegie-Mellon University
Coe College
Columbia University
Comenius University, Slovakia
Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Florida Institute of Technology
Harvard University
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Louisiana State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Moscow State University, Russia
National Taiwan University
Rice University
Shanghai University, China
Simon Fraser University
St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, Russia
Swarthmore College
Texas Technical University
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Tsinghua University, Taiwan
Universitat Ulm, Germany
University of Bucharest, Romania
University of California, Berkeley
University of Central Florida
University of Delaware
University of Kentucky
University of Miami
University of Missouri-Rolla
University of Nevada at Las Vegas
University of Queensland, Australia
University of Saskatchewan
University of Sofia, St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria
University of Toronto
University of Utah
University of Waterloo
University of Auckland, New Zealand
Virginia Tech
Warsaw University, Poland
Wheaton College
