May 31, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Teams and individuals from several Alabama high schools received awards at the recent 2007 University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) High School Programming Contest and Alice Film Festival. The contest is an outreach of the UAB Department of Computer and Information Sciences.
New to the event this year was the Alice Film Festival, in which students submitted movies written in Alice, an interactive graphical programming environment. Students worked over the past year on their movies, which were judged on creativity and technical proficiency. The film festival was the first of its kind in the United States and featured a keynote presentation by Caitlin Kelleher, Ph.D., of Carnegie-Mellon University, who is one of the creators of Alice. Prizes totaling $7,400 were awarded at the two events.
Programming Contest:
Programming contest team competition winners were: first place, Alabama School of Fine Arts (Birmingham); second place, Alabama School of Math and Science (Mobile), third place, Vestavia Hills High School (Birmingham); and fourth place, Buckhorn High School (Huntsville). Each school received a year’s subscription to the Microsoft eAcademy.
Individual winners and their prizes were:
- First place (Dell laptop, Microsoft Visual Studio): Chris Busby, a junior at Alabama School of Fine Arts
- Second place, (Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Visual Studio) Ryan Muller, a senior at Vestavia Hills High School
- Third place ($50 bookstore gift certificate, Microsoft Visual Studio) Adam Kalachman, a senior at Grissom High School in Huntsville.
Each of the top three winners also received an award plaque. The top 15 students out of 35 each received a textbook from Addison-Wesley. The remainder of the top 15 are, in order of finish:
- Joshua Swank, Alabama School of Fine Arts, freshman
- Patrick Butler, Alabama School of Math and Science, junior
- Nikolia Kochurov, Alabama School of Math and Science, sophomore
- Jacob Smith, Randolph School, Huntsville, junior
- Alex Filby, Alabama School of Math and Science, senior
- James Mazikoswki, Buckhorn High School, sophomore,
- Hudson Harper, Alabama School of Fine Arts, senior,
- William Noble, Alabama School of Math and Science, junior,
- Chris Carpenter, Buckhorn High School, freshman,
- Jonathan Cobb, Alabama School of Fine Arts, senior
- Joel Wolfe, Alabama School of Math and Science, senior
- Michael Robson, Alabama School of Math and Science, junior
Alice Film Festival
Individual first- through fourth-place winners in each of three Alice Film Festival categories – elementary, middle and high school – received prizes.
First-place winners of the Alice Film Festival received a $100 gift certificate; second place, a $50 gift certificate; and third place, a $25 gift certificate. All winners received an award plaque.
Elementary School – Individual
- Sinclair Portis, Irondale Community School, fourth grade
- Duncan Henderson, Carry Woods Elementary (Auburn), fifth grade
- Patricia Gilmer, Carry Woods Elementary (Auburn), fifth grade
- Maurice Bailey, Carry Woods Elementary (Auburn), fifth grade
Middle School – Team
- Joshua Swank and Kamerons Dickerson, Alabama School of Fine Arts
- D’Andre Sherrod, Harsh Shah and Hemal Patel, Alabama School of Fine Arts
Middle School – Individual
- Spencer Portis, Gresham Middle School
- Zachary Gallaway, Alabama School of Fine Arts
- Joyce Lin, Alabama School of Fine Arts
- Lily Siegel, Alabama School of Fine Arts
High School – Team
- Nikolia Kochurov and Dana Zhao, Alabama School of Math and Science
- Will Whitney and George Tankersley, Mountain Brook High School
High School – Individual
- Anne Weng, Vestavia Hills High School
- Yichen Feng, Vestavia Hills High School
- Alexis Mosjidis, Auburn High School
- Steven Sheffield, Alabama School of Fine Arts
The contest is sponsored by the UAB Computer and Information Sciences Department, MedMined, Dell, Pearson Addison-Wesley, CTS and Microsoft. The Film Festival is sponsored by MedMined and Cardinal Health.