29th Annual Computer Bowl Held
First-place winner from Northern High School in Calvert County are, from left, Jim Kong, Justen Serrao, Will Longsworth, and Nathan Hayes.
The 29th annual Southern Maryland High School Computer Bowl was held March 17, 2018, sponsored by Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO).
Second-place winners from Huntingtown High School in Calvert County include, from left, Nick Matthews, Brian Holt, coach Tom Currier, Zach Lee, and Brayden Archer.
The Computer Bowl underscores the importance of computer skills for students who are planning to become proficient in technical and industrial career fields. Information technology is firmly embedded in daily life, so electric utilities like SMECO depend on computerization to help keep the lights on for customers.
This year’s event was held at North Point High School in Charles County. It featured 70 student computer experts, testing their coding skills and technical knowledge. Sponsors included SMECO, the College of Southern Maryland, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the public school systems in Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties.
Third-place winners were Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County, from left, Daniel Werme, Jim Toledo, J.D. Kelly, and coach Nora Blasko. Not shown is team member Sam Wilson.
Twelve Southern Maryland high schools sent 15 teams to face the challenging literacy and programming tests in the Computer Bowl. In the first round, students took a written test that measured knowledge of computer history, hardware, and software. Next, teams of three to four students built computer programs to solve specific problems, using programming languages like Java and Python. Charles County Public Schools gave each team two laptops for the programming portion of the competition.
Fourth-place team is North Point High School in Charles County. Coach Melody Stahl stands in front of team members, from left, Christian Parrales, Brian Levesque, Matteo Marchi, and Omar Poole.
Calvert County’s Northern and Huntingtown high schools won first and second place in the competition.
Northern High School students Nathan Hayes, Will Longsworth, Jim Kong, and Justen Serrao, coached by Victoria Longsworth, placed first.
Finishing second was the Huntingtown team of Brayden Archer, Zach Lee, Brian Holt, and Nick Matthews, coached by Tom Currier.
Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County won third place, with Nora Blasko coaching J.D. Kelly, Jim Toledo, Daniel Werme, and Sam Wilson.
In fourth place was North Point High School in Charles County, with team members Brian Levesque, Christian Parrales, Matteo Marchi, and Omar Poole, coached by Melody Stahl.
Competition winners were given plaques and trophies, and SMECO awarded gift cards to the top four teams. The College of Southern Maryland also provided the first-place winners with performance awards.
Booz Allen Hamilton employees Travis Arndt, Janet Bondelid, Carrie Dalton, Amanda Foxton, Shannon Katulich, Tobin Kaneshiro, Stephen Katulich Jr., Nathan McClain, Michael McDonald Jr., and Robert Weber Jr., were judges for the competition, along with Joe Burgin from the College of Southern Maryland and SMECO’s Casey Cooke. Lora Bennett and John Stine with Charles County Public Schools developed the literacy and programming tests used in the competition.
To learn more about SMECO, please visit their Leader member page.
