We're excited to invite you to the Fall 2019 Code-a-Thon! The competition will begin this Friday, October 18th, at 7pm. You may attend in-person in the Swearingen 2A11 computer lab, or participate online at the links provided later at the bottom of this email. Every semester, our chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery hosts a 24 hour Code-a-Thon (coding competition) open to all University of South Carolina students. Come solve problems, eat (FREE) pizza, find internships, and battle for prizes at ACM's most anticipated event of the semester. Do not be intimidated by the 24 hour run time! While the Code-a-Thon does indeed run 24 hours (7 PM - 7 PM), you do not have to be present for all of it. Submitting problems from home is allowed and welcomed, especially for alumni not in Columbia. There will be pizza, snacks, and drinks at the event. We have 4 different divisions so that you do not have to compete with people of wildly different skill levels. Please note that the divisions are split by CURRENT course enrollment - if you have completed CSCE 146 and are currently enrolled in CSCE 240, you would compete in the 240 division. However if you have completed CSCE 146 but are not currently enrolled in CSCE 240, you would be eligible to compete in the 146 division. To competitors not in a computing degree program at USC, self evaluate yourself as an (1) absolute beginner; (2) beginner - some coding experience; (3) intermediate; (4) advanced into the 145, 146, 240, and 350 divisions, respectively. Prizes are awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each division. Prizes have not yet been determined but in the past have been Arduinos, gift cards, flash drives, and USB keyboards. Check out the newspost on our ACM chapter's website for more information and links to the competition: https://acm.cse.sc.edu/events/2019-10-18-code-a-thon.html Once the competition starts, you can click on the links to join the division: 145, introductory programming questions 146, data structures questions 240, algorithms questions 350, advanced algorithms questions Look forward to seeing you there! Please reach out to me at hdamron@email.sc.edu with any questions. Hunter Damron ACM Student Chapter President