Northern High School
BENNSVILLE, Md. – Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) supported technical education by sponsoring the 29th annual Southern Maryland High School Computer Bowl on March 17. The competition underscores the importance of computer skills for students who plan to become proficient in technical and industrial fields. With information technology firmly embedded in daily life, electric utilities like SMECO depend heavily on computerization to help keep the lights on for their customers.
This year’s Computer Bowl, held at North Point High School in Charles County, featured 70 young computer experts in a test of their coding skills and technical knowledge. Sponsors for the annual competition are SMECO, the College of Southern Maryland, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the public school systems of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties.
Huntingtown High School
Fifteen teams from 12 high schools in Southern Maryland faced the challenging literacy and programming tests in the Computer Bowl. In the first round of the competition, students took a written test of their knowledge of computer history, hardware, and software. In the second round, teams of three to four students created computer programs to solve specific problems, using programming languages such as Java and Python. Charles County Public Schools equipped each team with two laptops for the programming portion of the competition.
Great Mills High School
Northern and Huntingtown high schools in Calvert County won first and second place in the competition. Northern High School students Nathan Hayes, Jim Kong, Will Longsworth, and Justen Serrao, coached by Victoria Longsworth, placed first. Finishing second was the Huntingtown team of Brayden Archer, Brian Holt, Zach Lee, and Nick Matthews, coached by Tom Currier. Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County won third place, with Nora Blasko coaching J.D. Kelly, Jim Toledo, Daniel Werme, and Sam Wilson. In fourth place was North Point High School in Charles County, with team members Brian Levesque, Matteo Marchi, Christian Parrales, and Omar Poole, coached by Melody Stahl.
North Point High School
Winners received plaques and trophies, and SMECO awarded gift cards to the top four teams. The College of Southern Maryland also provided the first-place winners with performance awards.
Booz Allen Hamilton employees Travis Arndt, Janet Bondelid, Carrie Dalton, Amanda Foxton, Tobin Kaneshiro, Shannon Katulich, Stephen Katulich, Jr., Nathan McClain, Michael McDonald, Jr., and Robert Weber, Jr., served as judges for the competition, along with Joe Burgin from the College of Southern Maryland and Casey Cooke from SMECO. Lora Bennett and John Stine with Charles County Public Schools developed the literacy and programming tests used in the competition.