The University of Scranton's (U of S) Annual High School Programming Contest has been held each spring (except in 2001) since 1990. It is sponsored by the U of S's ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Student Chapter and by its Department of Computing Sciences. Historically, most participants have been students attending high schools in Northeastern Pennsylvania. However, on several occasions competitors have come from schools as far away as 100+ miles. Each school is represented by one or two three-person teams.
The competition lasts four hours, during which each team tries to solve several (usually, six) computer programming problems using any of a number of programming languages (e.g., Java, C/C++). The greater the number of problems a team solves, the higher its ranking in the final standings. Ties are broken according to how much time each team needed to solve the problems, including penalty minutes that are assessed for each incorrect solution submitted.
Following the contest, an awards banquet is held. There, each of the three highest-ranked teams receives a plaque and members of the winning team receive a $500 scholarship to attend the University.
For more details, see the description of the 2009 contest (to be held on April 6) or contact Dr. Bob McCloskey, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computing Sciences.
Register online. (Alternatively, you may print the form, fill it out by hand, and send it via the U.S. Postal Service to Robert McCloskey, Dept. of Computing Sciences, University of Scranton, Scranton PA 18510-4664.)