Six Schmid College students will compete in IEEEXtreme on Friday, a 24-hour programming competition against students from all over the globe.

The ninth-annual college competition requires students to work collaboratively to solve a series of challenging programming problems. It begins simultaneously around the world on October 23, 2015 at 0:00 UTC (or October 24, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. PST).

The students from Schmid College will be bunkered down in Von Neumann Hall for the competition. Associate Dean Michael Fahy, PhD, and alumnus Travis Hummel ’12 have been helping the students prepare with practice exercises in important areas. Dr. Fahy, also an IEEE member, will be on-hand during the event to advise and proctor the student team.

Last year, over 5,500 students participated in the global challenge. The most active countries were India, USA, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Canada and Greece. The competition is by far the most popular of recent elite “hackathons,” with University of Pennsylvania’s “Penn Apps” being the second largest with 1,300 participants.

Schmid College has entered two teams in to the competition. Participants, who are members of the Chapman Association for Computing Machinery, include:

Winners of the competition will get more than just a resumé boost; they will receive a free trip to the IEEE conference of their choice—anywhere in the world.

For more information about IEEExtreme, visit their website here.