Michael Skinner, one of the two Americans at the TopCoder collegiate competition in Orlando, took first place in the “marathon” division. The Times reports:
Skinner, 22, a senior, was one of just two Americans among a field of 120 students gathered in Florida for the 2007 TopCoder Collegiate Challenge. Skinner had qualified eighth among eight finalists in the “marathon match” division, and he was up against students from Poland, France and the United Kingdom - all of whom had won or placed in previous events. link
Skinner walked away with $15,000 in prize money, and will be working at Google when he graduates.
As I said previously, I think it’s great to have prizes and competitions to encourage excellence and innovation.
TopCoder is sponsored by employers looking to hire talent, but I can think of several other ways our society is taking advantage of contests and competitions:
- Contests to develop open-source software, e.g. plugins for WordPress or improvements to Linux
- Competitions to develop environmental solutions, such as Formula Hybrid
- Marketing competitions to support the work of nonprofits or make public service announcements, such as the NoStankYou anti-smoking campaign. Check out this hilarious PSA, for example, which features the catchy jingle “it’s like having someone big sitting on your chest.”
Bring on the competitions!
