==>Updated March 18, 2004<==

The following rules and guidelines apply to the Cobol, C++, VB, Webpage Design, Java, Database, Systems Analysis & Design, Network Design programming contest events.  For an explanation of the BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) option fort the contest events - scroll down.

1. Students competing on a team must be AITP members currently enrolled in courses at a two- or four-year college/university. Students who already have graduated from college with a related Bachelor's or Masters degree (CIS, MIS, IS, CS) may not compete. Additionally, we request that IS professionals (excluding internships and co-ops beyond one year) not compete as well. We are also also counting on the AITP student chapter faculty advisors to assist in this area.  However, a new Graduate student paper contest was approved and started with the 2003 conference.  The same rules will apply but scoring will be done for undergraduate .vs. graduate divisions.

                          2. Team Size:  1-2 individuals for  Cobol, C++, Visual Basic, FrontPage2004, Java, Database, Systems A&D, Network Design

3. Teams registering on or before April 3, 2004 pay a $35.00 registration fee per team. Teams registering after that date or onsite pay a $55.00 registration fee per team. Substitutions for members of registered teams is allowed but at the time of team registration, ALL team members must register or already be registered for the conference. Contest team registrations "only" will be "held" until the individual student attendee registrations are received.

4. Teams will have approximately 4 hours to complete their assigned problem or problems. This amount of times INCLUDES registration, briefing, problem statement review, Q&A, the actual contest itself and any contest de-briefing.

5. A team may not consult with nor communicate with anyone outside the team during the contest. Only teams and authorized room proctors will be allowed in the contest labs during the competition and the team's sponsor/advisor may not communicate with the team during the competition.

6. Team members may use printed reference materials of all types which they have brought to the contest. You may not bring any disks, CD’s or any computer media including any electronic devices to the competition area.

7.   A team may only use their assigned workstation unless directed otherwise by the contest proctor/official.

8. Teams must use the software provided by the host site during the contest. Teams may not bring nor request that their own text editors, etc., be installed for use during the contest. The software, editors, etc., will be announced as soon as they are confirmed (subject to change) and all teams will use that common software as provided by the host site.

9. Legitimate special physical needs such as special keyboards, chairs, etc., need to be communicated to the host site and their availability and use negotiated by March 25, 2004.

10. Proctors in the contest labs will give a 15-20 minute warning before the ending time for the contest. Any final printing or other work must then be finished by teams before the announced ending time for the contest. When this ending time is reached, all teams must stop and turn in materials to the room proctor promptly.

11. Teams must turn in all materials provided by the contest coordinators as well as all electronic and printed materials produced by the team in working the contest problems. Teams may not have included the team members names nor the name of the college the team represents nor any other identifying information anywhere in the materials turned in to the proctor. The team's solution and other materials may only be identified by the team number assigned to the team at the beginning of the contest.

12. Any violations of the rules and guidelines will result in the offending team being disqualified. Such disqualification may be ruled by the room proctors, contest coordinators or judges.

13.  Although team feedback will vary by contest event and judges, our goal is to provide maximum team feedback beyond recognizing the top three contest winners. We will rank the top ten teams for each contest event with places 4^th through tenth receiving an honorable recognition for their achievements. Sample and/or winning solutions will also be posted on the web site www.aitp.org after the conference. In the event of a tie, the time stamp will be used to break the tie.

14.  Additional contest information (and changes/updates) will be published on the web site www.aitp.org. Additionally, links to web sites maintained by our volunteer base will contain tips, solutions, sample problems….

15.  Graduate students will be allowed to compete in the student paper contest as a separate division.  Otherwise, Graduate students may not compete in any other programming contest events associated with this conference.

16. General programming contest solution judging criteria:

      a.   Only Programs/solutions that function will be initially evaluated (unless no one has a functioning solution).

      b.   Internal documentation refers to descriptive data and module names, readability of code and internal comments  

 

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AITP National Collegiate Conference

BYOC: Bring Your Own Computer Rules & Guidelines

1. All computers (both desktop and laptop computers are allowed) must have Windows XP, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003 installed.  Your computer should be fully patched with all current operating system and application software updates.  It should also have current antivirus software installed to help protect against the possibility of infection and/or corruption that could result in a loss of your competition time, results, or both.

2. All computers must have a USB port (USB 2.0 preferred, but not required).  Each team is responsible for ensuring that their computer's USB port is functioning properly.  As you compete in a particular contest, you will prepare a folder on your computer that contains your team's work.  At the end of a competition event, the Contest Coordinator will use USB hard drives to collect folders submitted for review by the judges.  The folders cannot contain any identifying indications, other than your officially-assigned team number.

3.  Wireless or wireline networking devices may not be activated during competition.  Any activation will result in immediate disqualification.

4.  Some contests may allow or require that printed materials be submitted at the end of the contest period.  See the rules on the official AITP National Collegiate Conference website (www.aitp.org) to determine whether or not your contest will require printed output.  If printing is required for a particular contest, the Contest Coordinator may make network-based printers available at the end of the contest period.  In order to be able to use those printers, your computer will need to have a Category 5 Ethernet cable with RJ45 connectors and a 10/100 Ethernet adapter.  You will also need to have Microsoft Windows Networking and TCP/IP both installed.  The TCP/IP connection properties should be set to use DHCP so that the computer can obtain its network address automatically.

5.  Your computer must contain the approved application development tool(s) in the version(s) specified on the official AITP National Collegiate Conference website (www.aitp.org).

6. All teams are responsible for ensuring the safety, security, and integrity of their computer equipment.  AITP does not assume responsibility for any loss or damage.

7. A testing area will be available adjacent to the overall conference registration table to verify USB, network, and printing capabilities. 

"AITP Programming Contest Rules & Guidelines"

COBOL Programming Competition

"Call for Student Papers"

Individual undergraduate and graduate student papers are solicited dealing with contemporary and important issues in business information systems. Topics include, but are not limited to, software engineering issues, the use of CASE tools, user interfaces, client server, database systems, expert systems, decision support systems, applications of object-oriented, graphical, or visual programming languages, data communications and networks, ethical and social issues, security, and multi-media environments.

Papers for review and publication are limited to fifteen (15) typed, double-spaced pages including figures, tables and references. Paper must use 12 point Times font, be right and left justified, and have 1 inch margins all around. Paper must include a separate cover page with title, name, college and/or university, address, and e-mail address for the author. The first page of the paper must have the title and a list of appropriate keywords such as those presented as suggested topics, but NO NAME or EDUCATIONAL AFFILIATION of the author. A 250 word maximum abstract must immediately follow the keyword list. The body of the paper must contain NO NAME or EDUCATIONAL AFFILIATION of the author. References must appear in alphabetical order at the end of the paper as follows:

Adams, D., Wagner, G., and Boyer, T. (1983) Computer Information Systems: An Introduction, Southwestern Publishing: Cincinnati, OH.

Liebowitz, J. (1995) Integrating Expert Systems Throughout the Undergraduate Curriculum. Journal of Information Systems Education, 7 (1) 34-36.

Senhouse, C. (1995) An Entity-Relationship Design for Graphical Software Development. Proceedings of the 33^rd Annual ACM Southeast Conference, Clemson University, SC, 37-41.

They are referred to in the body of the paper as (Adams et al., 1983), (Liebowitz, 1995), and (Senhouse, 1995) respectively.

A panel of reviewers will review your "blind" paper (meaning all identification of the author will be removed) and score the papers on the following points and scale:

Undergraduate: Total possible score of 120 (maximum of 20 points for each category):

• Significance and/or originality of ideas
• Clarity of paper presentation, including tables, figures and references
• Quality of paper organization, including punctuation and grammar 
• Quality of concept and contribution to the field
• Appropriateness and soundness of methodology
• Quality and accuracy of research

Graduate: Total possible score of 100:

• Clarity of paper presentation, tables, figures and references (10 pts)

• Quality of paper organization (10 pts)
• Significance and/or originality of ideas (20 pts)
• Quality of research concept and contribution to the field (20 pts)
• Appropriateness and soundness of research methodology (20 pts)
• Quality and accuracy of research (20 pts)

You will be notified via email/phone/mail if your paper has been accepted as a "finalist" for presentation at the 2004 AITP National Collegiate Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. In order to present your paper, you must register and attend the conference and appear at the scheduled breakout session Saturday, April 3, 2004, to present your paper.

ONSITE STUDENT PAPER PRESENTATION EVALUATION  (Both Undergraduate and Graduate)

A panel of judges will objectively evaluate your live presentation of your paper during the scheduled breakout sessions on Saturday, April 3, 2004.  Separate presentation sessions will be scheduled for graduate and undergraduate paper presentations and a time block of 15 minutes will be provided for each presentation.  There will be timers and setup time will be available. .

Total possible score of 120 (maximum of 20 points for each category):

• Preparedness
• Introduction
• Clarity and Organization
• Coverage of Topic
• Depth of Analysis
• Use of Visual Aids and Time

DETERMINATION OF WINNERS

The combination of the two scores (paper evaluation and presentation evaluation) will ultimately determine the overall student paper contest winners with the top three scores being awarded first, second and third place.

3.        AITP Student Chapter website listing of other AITP student chapters (searchable database by school/state, use info from www.aitp.org)

4.        Announcements of upcoming events

5.        Past chapter activities - including photos

6.        Meeting minutes - a summary of the most recent chapter meeting

7.        A link to www.aitp.org

8.        Remote announcement update capabilities (finalists only)

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

1.        All content MUST run on your web site.  A link to a form on another web site will not count as meeting a requirement.

2.        Must run on IE 6.0

3.        Must NOT include any plug-ins or other add-ins that must be downloaded and installed in order to use the web site.

4.        PDF files are acceptable content on the site.

5.        Design for the minimum screen resolution of 600x800 (no horizontal scroll bar).

6.        Finalists must demonstrate and show announcements can be updated from a web browser form that does not require any programming knowledge.

1.           Functionality - everything on the site should work properly

2.      Navigation

3.      Visual Appearance

4.      Documentation (finalists only)

5.      Content - Useful Information

6.      All Functional and Technical requirements have been satisfied

1.                    The contest judges will select the top 5 entries (URL submission is due 3/1/2004) to Sean_Gallagher@sba.com. 

2.                    The top 5 entries will be declared "finalists" and will be notified by March 19, 2004.

3.          Late submissions "will not be considered".

4.                    Finalists will present their websites on Saturday, April 3, 2004 as a scheduled breakout session.

5.         We would like for one faculty member from each of the finalists schools to help with the judging at the conference as well.

TIPS ABOUT COMPETING

1.        Design your web site for what it represents.  You may use Flash but it must be appropriate for an AITP student chapter web site.  Don't over do it.  Have a mature professional theme..

2.        Web sites are judged by a point system.  No matter how great a certain feature is, it can only earn you the maximum points for a certain aspect of the contest.  It generally isn't going to be enough to make up for a low point total for another area either.  Don't overlook any category the web sites are judged by.

3.        Give yourself every opportunity to win.  The judges will make every effort to give each web site a fair evaluation but realize that it is to your advantage to be certain your work isn't overlooked.  Don't place any barriers, such as a special login, to the features of your web site.  Contestants don't have the opportunity to explain their web sites in the initial phase when the finalists are being selected.  Be aware of the situation and make sure everything is as obvious as possible.

4.        Finalists will be asked to provide written web site project documentation at the finalist presentation for the judges.        

CONTEST URL SUBMISSION (Must be by 3/1/2004!!!)    Email: Sean_Gallagher@aitp.oprg

CONTEST QUESTIONS???        Email: mike@burell.com

You can bring your own notebook PC ideally with a NIC card for networking printing capability.  Purdue Universities pc's will have Microsoft Visio already installed for your use and convenience.

Teams of one or two individuals will be given a business problem statement and approximately a three hour time frame to analyze and design. Any widely used methodology may be used such as Object Oriented Analysis, Structured Analysis, Information Engineering, Prototyping, etc. The business model does not have to be fully implemented; however, a system design that allows user prototyping with screen/window/web page interaction will be considered in the over-all grading.

This contest is software and methodology independent. Each team can:

C   Bring your own laptop/notebook PC

C   Bring your own business modeling software.  This could include any CASE, I-CASE or other model-based

   development product.  Example tools may include: Oracle Designer/Developer, Unified Modeling Language,

   Visible Analyst, CA Cool Gen, Cool Jex, etc.

C   Bring any needed reference material.

C    Will allow multiple analysis and design methodologies, which may include structured analysis,

   object-oriented analysis, information engineering, rapid application design and prototyping and

   any other widely accepted methodology

C     Will describe a corporate problem that can be solved in approximately 3 hours

Each team will provide a set of analysis and design diagrams for the problem statement depending on the methodology selected and/or followed.  Total points will be used to determine the overall contest winners.

The judges will use the following criteria in evaluating team your solution depending on which methodology was selected:

                                                  -----------METHODOLOGY 1-----------                                          -----------METHODOLOGY 2------------