Notes to Sites from the Chief Judge

Most of these notes are for the site coordinator, but some apply to the judges as well. There are notes for before, during, and after the contest.

Before the Contest (Site Coordinator)

1. As soon as you get this, send me email at ericshade@mail.smsu.edu and tell me:

  1. the name of your site,
  2. your name (the site coordinator),
  3. an email address and phone number I can reach you at before the contest, and
  4. an email address and phone number I can reach you at during the contest.

I'll reply with the password you and the judges can use to access the contest Web site (see below). You should verify that you can access the Web site, but you won't have to do anything with it until the contest begins.

2. Make sure that the IDE and command-line versions of your compilers are the same and use the same options for code generation, memory model, etc. The students will probably use the IDE, but the judges will probably use the command-line compilers. If you are using a recent Borland C/C++ compiler, note that bcc is the 16-bit compiler and bcc32 is the 32-bit compiler; use whichever one matches the settings of the IDE. If you are using a Windows compiler, make sure it is set to generate a text-mode application, not a GUI application.

3. If the judges choose to install the judging utilities from their packet, the installation batch file will create two subdirectories C:\JUDGE and C:\TEAM, and store a file in C:\. If you are using Windows NT you will need to make sure that the judges have the necessary permissions. The judging utilities also assume that the command-line versions of the compilers are on the path. See Using the Judging Utilities for more information.

4. Make sure you have a program that can create .zip files. The judges will need this at the end of the contest to send me files for the top-ranked teams. If you need a zip program, there are nice free ones available at http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/.

5. If your compiler has multiple options for creating a project and there is a chance that a team might use the wrong one, prepare a hand-out for each team explaining how to use the compiler.

Day of the Contest (Site Coordinator and Judges)

1. Each team packet will contain a copy of each problem, a description of the error messages used in judging, and Notes to Teams. Teams will not receive a copy of the tie-breaking rules, so during the pre-contest meeting you should tell them that there are rules for breaking ties to determine regional winners (those that advance to the finals) and post a copy of the rules on the notice board. You should also decide what rules you want to use to break ties at your site, and tell them those as well. I recommend that you do not break ties at the site level, but it's up to you.

2. If you prepared a hand-out for teams in Step 5 above, distribute it and discuss it at the pre-contest meeting, and post a copy on the notice board.

3. You will need to appoint a local Head Judge, and in addition you will need two Witnesses (described below). All three must be team sponsors from different schools.

4. All contest-day administration (entering scores, getting results, asking questions, being notified of corrections, ...) will occur via the Web site at http://www.smsu.edu/acmpc. You must be using Netscape 3 or higher, or Internet Explorer 3 or higher, and you must enable cookies (they're on by default in all browsers). The Web page is fairly self-explanatory, and help is available. If you are having trouble, call or email me. Be sure to check the site regularly for corrections and updates, even if you have no scores to enter.

Immediately After the Contest (Site Coordinator and Judges)

1. The Head Judge and two Witnesses will need to send me files from all teams that are unofficially ranked in the top 12 for the region. (The top nine teams will get prizes from IBM.) All three should work together on this so that there are no mistakes and no foul play. Rather than send diskettes, this year I want you to send the files via email. If your site has one or more teams in the top 12, send me an email ASAP at the end of the contest with the following information:

  1. name of site,
  2. a listing of each ranked team with the problems solved, elapsed time and penalties for each problem, and total solution time,
  3. a .zip file for each team containing the source files for their correct solutions (the name of the file should be the name of the team, like smsu-a.zip), and
  4. the name, school, email address, and phone number of the Head Judge and the two Witnesses.

Make sure that you zip up the correct files. Some teams may have multiple programs on the same disk, so don't accidentally send an old copy. I will reply to your email with a confirmation that I got everything OK, and then I will use this information to verify the final rankings.

2. Keep all contest materials (judging sheets, diskettes for correct problems, etc) at your site for at least a month in case any problems arise.


Eric Shade, Regional Chief Judge
Southwest Missouri State University
417-836-4944
ericshade@mail.smsu.edu