SBCC’s two programming teams, SBCC++ and SBCC—, took top honors for two-year schools at the recent 2010 Southern California Regionals for the International Collegiate Programming Competition, held at Riverside Community College.

Additionally, SBCC placed 15th (SBCC++) and 37th (SBCC—) overall, which place SBCC’s teams over teams from many four-year institutions, including UCSB, CSU Channel Islands, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal State Los Angeles and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The overall winner, Harvey Mudd College, will compete in the ICPC World Finals to be held in Egypt.

This year marked SBCC’s return to the ICPC since the 1996-1997 school year when SBCC hosted the competition. The team SBCC++ — Keith Avery, Roxanne Brittain and Allison Van Pelt — shattered the previous record for the most number of problems solved by a two-year school by solving four problems. This was double the previous record of two.

SBCC++ also had the highest placement (top 21 percent) of any two-year institution since records started being kept more than 20 years ago. The team SBCC—— Kevin Daniels, Dan Malear and William Moor — also performed at a record-breaking pace by solving three problems.

The ICPC gives the three-member student teams a set of eight programming problems that must be completed within five hours. This year saw 72 teams from 26 schools competing from throughout the Southern California area, including Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CSUCI, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Los Angeles, Caltech, Harvey Mudd College, Moorpark College, Mount San Antonio College, Riverside Community College, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UNLV, USC and others. The problem set this year saw all of the problems completed, but none of the problems were completed by any one school. Click here for the official results.

Both SBCC teams were coached by SBCC computer science professor Dean Nevins, the department chairman.

“The competition provided a tremendous opportunity for SBCC students to mix it up with the best programmers out there,” Nevins said. “The preparation and dedication needed to participate in the contest was considerable.

“The best part was that all the students had a great time and got a lot out of the experience.”