Most of these notes are for the site director, but some apply to the judges as well. There are notes for before, during, and after the contest.
Each year one of the three regional chief judges will act as the contest-day point of contact to handle all questions and corrections. This year your contact is John Cigas from Rockhurst University. You can email him at cigas@acm.org or phone him at 816-501-4534.
1. Figure out how to restrict access to the Internet. Ideally, teams should work on computers that are not attached to the Internet (local networks are OK). Consider running unnetworked computers as a possibility. If you can't isolate your computers from the Internet, disable as many services (email, web browsers, irc, etc.) as possible AND plan on monitoring teams throughout the competition. Anyone found to have accessed anything outside the local network should be disqualified from the contest and reported to the Regional Director for other possible sanctions.
2. Make sure that the IDE and command-line versions of your compilers are the same and use the same options for code generation, debugging information, etc. The students will probably use the IDE, but the judges will probably use the command-line compilers. Remember that starting this year, all compilers must be 32-bit, not 16-bit. If you are using a Windows compiler, make sure it is set to generate a text-mode application, not a GUI application. See Site Software Requirements for more information.
3. The judging utilities 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 John files for the top-ranked teams. If you need a zip program, there are nice free ones available at http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/Zip.html
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.
6. Have ACMIO.class available for Java programmers. You can either publicize a readable place on your network where it is placed, or copy it onto a floppy disk supplied to the teams. (Except for this file, all floppy disks supplied to teams should be blank.) There is a copy on the judging disk with path \JUDGE\ACMIO.class. Also, you can compile the source file available at http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh/ACM99.
1. Each team packet will contain a copy of each problem, a description of the error messages used in judging, and Notes to Teams. 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. Warn teams about immediate disqualification for accessing anything outside the local computing environment.
2. You will need to appoint a local Head Judge, and in addition you will need two Witnesses (described below). All three must be team coaches from different schools.
3. All contest-day administration (entering scores, viewing the standings, and receiving problem updates) will occur via the regional web site at http://www.cs.smsu.edu/~mcpc. Call John at 816-501-4534 at 12:15 to get your site password so that you can enter scores and view standings and updates. (Other sites will be calling at about the same time, so keep trying until you get through.) The Web page is fairly self-explanatory, but if you're having trouble, call or email John. Problem clarifications and corrections will be displayed at the top of the standings pages, so be sure to check the standings regularly, even if you have no scores to enter.
4. When you call John to receive your password, also give him the names of any teams that registered at your site but did not show up. He will leave those teams in the rankings (in case they show up late), but will mark them with {X} to indicate that they are no-shows.
5. Do not hand out floppies to teams until they are in their rooms at 12:15. If necessary, have your runners distribute the floppies. Fill out the judging request forms in advance with the team number and problem, so that teams cannot collaborate and submit problems for a different team.
5:30 Finish Entering Scores
The Web scoring system will allow updates until approximately 5:50. There
will be people running around everywhere at 5:30, so make sure that no one
other than the judges has access to the machines you are using to enter
scores. Either lock the door (and perhaps post a sign) or have someone block
the entrance until you are done. Once you have entered all scores, carefully
double-check the scores for any of your teams that are ranked in the top 5 in
the region.
5:50 Email Solutions for Top-ranked Teams
The Head Judge and two Witnesses will need to send John solutions from
all teams that are unofficially ranked in the top 5 for the region.
All three should work
together on this so that there are no mistakes and no foul play.
If you have any teams ranked in the top 5 in the region, send John
an email message with the following information:
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. John will reply to your email with a confirmation that he got everything OK, and then he will use this information to verify the final rankings. Official final rankings will be posted by Monday.
If you do not have a team ranked in the top 5 in the region, you do not need to send anything.
Keep all contest materials (all judging sheets and time logs, diskettes for correct problems, and all of the backups created by the judging utilities) at your site for at least a month in case any problems arise.