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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1998)
Trio heads to world finals Computer programmers will face 57 other teams By Kim Sweet Staff writer Quick thinking and efficient prob lem-solving are sending three UNL stu dents to the Netherlands this spring. The computer programming trio of Josh Brown, Yixin Guo and Lucas Sabalka will attend the world finals for collegiate computer programming because of its success at the North Central Regional Collegiate Programming Contest on Nov. 7. Teams in the region attended multi ple competition sites — including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where Brown, Guo and Sabalka competed - and results were tabulated over the World Wide Web. Brown is a sophomore computer engineering major, Guo is a junior com puter engineering major and Sabalka is a freshman math, physics and computer science major. The contest included six problems that teams had to solve within five hours. The team to finish fastest with the most correct solutions won. The team found out about its first place honors five minutes after the con test was over and scores tabulated. But approximately 10 minutes earli er, their first-place standing had been in jeopardy. “What did surprise me was that we were in fifth place until about five min utes before the end of the contest,” Brown said. The three managed to fix a bug minutes before the contest ended. The team took first place after solv ing the most solutions and having the least amount of penalty points out of 59 teams from the region. Six schools com peted at UNL. The region included most of the Midwest and parts of Canada. Charles Riedesel, chief adviser for the UNL Computer Science and Engineering Department, said the team members put in time preparing by solv ing problems from previous contests. In order to get ready for the compe tition that takes place in Eindhoven, Netherlands, the team will practice with Visual Age software provided by IBM. The members have participated in contests before, Riedesel said. Sabalka was the winner of UNL’s high school programming competition last year. While there have been previous teams that have competed on the world level from UNL, this is the first one in a number of years, Riedesel said. Teams were allowed to have one graduate student, he said. The freshman, sophomore and junior competed against teams comprised of seniors and possibly an upper-level student, Reidesel said. The three will face 57 other teams that represent 58 schools among 1,500 colleges and universities around the world when they compete in the Netherlands. JefFEpler, a senior computer sci ence major, and Jon Travis, a junior computer science major, made up the other UNL team, which earned third place in the contest Second- and third-place teams have a chance to enter the competition as a wild card team. Kerrey still undecided on 2000 race KERREY from page 1 mittee, Building America’s Conscience & Kids. On Dec. 12, Kerrey will be a host at a conference on international eco nomics in Omaha. Participants will include Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. According to many political ana lysts, Vice President A1 Gore is the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2000. Jarding agreed that Gore has a head start on the Democratic field. “He’s the big dog in the hunt,” he said. “But I think it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that this business is fairly unpredictable.” Jarding said Kerrey had encoun tered Democrats who are “uneasy about the vice president and his mes sage and capacity to win.” Harrison Hickman, who has been a pollster for Kerrey since his first run for governor of Nebraska in 1982, noted, “There are an awful lot of front-runners who never got elected or never even got nominated.” Kerrey has some advantages over Gore, he said. For example, unlike Gore, Kerrey is not constrained by the views of the Clinton administration. Kerrey’s leadership and willing ness to take controversial stands on : issues such as entitlement reform may r _ attract voters who “are ready for big ger challenges than they’ve been pre sented with,” Hickman said. Kerrey, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, also received a boost from the results of the 1998 election, Hickman said. After Republicans had talked early in the campaign about gaining five seats to secure a fili buster-proof majority, Democrats kept the margin at 55-45. “He can justifiably take an awful lot of credit for the Democrats not los ing ground in a year when a lot of people, including myself, thought they would,” he said. Jarding said the nearly $60 mil lion Kerrey raised for Democratic Senate candidates was a record. “This was a test of leadership,” he said. “He has come out of this feeling very, very good. He has friends now that he may not have had before.” This past weekend, Kerrey met with Democratic leaders in Iowa, the state whose party caucuses will kick off the 2000 presidential campaign. John Norris, former state chair man of the Iowa Democratic Party, said Kerrey’s fund-raising efforts had provided a boost to Iowa Democratic candidates. Norris now works on the transition team for Iowa Gov.-elect Tom Vilsack, who won a come-ffom behind victory Nov. 3. “(Kerrey) put a good weekend together,” he said. “It was a good opportunity for him to reach out and talk to our statewide leaders.” Norris, who has not decided whom to support in the 2000 presi dential campaign, said Kerrey would have a good chance to connect with Iowans, given his Midwestern back ground and knowledge of farm issues. Given the uphill battle Kerrey would be expected to face in a presi dential contest, some Nebraskans aren’t sure a presidential bid would be his best option. Anne Boyle, chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said Kerrey had “great credibility and stature in the SenJte” and would ben • “formidable challenger” to A1 Gore. But Boyle said she had reserva tions about a presidential bid - albeit for “self-serving reasons,” she added. “Do we jeopardize not having him in the U.S. Senate to run what I think he would admit would be an uphill battle to be president of the United States?” she said. “I would rather have a safe bet than risk losing his leader ship in the state of Nebraska.” Although Kerrey faces a cross roads in his political career and must make a difficult choice, it’s a good dilemma to face, Jarding said. “He’s said publicly that he feels fortunate to have a chance to make this decision,” he said. “He’s not ago nizing over it. He feels that his coun try has been very good to him, and he wants to give back.” Dispute leads to stabbing A domestic dispute escalated into a stabbing Sunday evening when another man tried to intervene. A woman was urging her live-in boyfriend to leave their apartment on the 1400 block of North 45 th Street when he grabbed her and pulled a knife, Lincoln Police Sgt. Ann Heermann said. Another man in the apartment stepped in and tried to separate the two. The two men struggled, and the intervening man was stabbed in the neck, though his injuries were not life threatening, police said. The injured man was treated and released at BryanLGH West Medical I Center. The boyfriend was arrested for sec ond-degree assault and the use of a weapon to commit a felony. Man attacked with knife An argument between two men in a kitchen turned violent when one grabbed a steak knife and started slash ing Sunday night. The victim, a 41-year-old man, asked a 20-year-old man to leave his apartment on the 1600block ofE Street, and an argument ensued, Heermann said. Both men went into the kitchen, and the 20-year-old grabbed a steak knife. The older man sustained three cuts on his left hand before the younger man left, police said. The older man heeded 10 stitches, and the younger man was arrested for second-degree assault and the use of a weapon to commit a felony. Compiled by senior staff writer Josh Funk ---1 _abortion care kind, confidential services • Outpatient Care • Awake or Asleep • Parental No tification Assistance • Immediate Appointments, In cluding Saturdays • Total OB/GYN Health Care • Full Time, Board Certified OB/GYN Physicians • Dr. G. W. Orr & Dr. CJ LaBenz OMAHA • 554-0110, TOLL-FREE • 1-800-922-8331 201 S. 46th St, Omaha NE 68132 http://gynpages. com/omaha Pulliam Journalism Fellowships * A r; r # <t '* *;» » « . • * j~ « 4 9**$ Graduating college seniors are invited to apply for the 26th annual Pulliam Journalism Fellowships. We will grant 10-week summer internships to 20 journalism or liberal arts majors in the August 1998 June 1999 graduating classes. Previous internship or part-time experience at a newspaper is desired. Winners will receive a $5,250 stipend and will work at either The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News or The Arizona Republic. Early-admissions application postmark deadline is Nov. 15, 1998. By Dec. 15, 1998, up to five early-admissions winners will be notified. All other entries must be postmarked by March 1, 1999. To request an application packet, write: Russell B. Pulliam Fellowships Director The Indianapolis News P.O. 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