Buena Vista University’s computer science program earned first and second place at the Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium held in April. This academic conference celebrates excellence in computer science education and innovation across the Upper Midwest. Held in Minneapolis, the event brought together 34 teams from colleges and universities in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. BVU entered six teams, the most of any participating school, a news release said. Both the winning and runner-up teams solved seven out of nine complex problems during the three-hour programming competition, which has rarely been achieved in the competition’s history, the release said. “This is a heck of a milestone for our program,” said Jason Shepherd, professor of computer science. “It’s one of those things we can point to and say, ‘Look, we’re the best.’ I often tell prospective students that our computer science program is the best undergraduate program in the Upper Midwest. I justify that claim by sharing the distinctive opportunities in our curriculum, our facilities and our very unique and impressive outcomes.”
