12/8/2010 Alyssa Eade, Computer Science
Written by Alyssa Eade, Computer Science
University of Illinois computer science student Justin Kopinsky won the 2010 State Farm Coding Competition. He qualified as one of the four finalists in the competition and traveled to the State Farm Headquarters in Bloomington, IL on November 4-5 and walked away with a grand prize of $1500.
The finalists were given a problem statement, and were then given just one hour to complete it. The finalists then presented their solution to the problem to the competition’s judges which included: State Farm Systems (IT) architects, executive leadership, and other State Farm employees.
Kopinsky had to compete against individuals and teams from a total of 15 universities in order to make it to the finals in Bloomington. The four finalists had the top submissions in the entire coding competition.
Kopinsky was a member of the Illinois ACM programming team that competed in the World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Competition in 2009.
Kopinsky was the only finalist that participated as an individual, rather than a team.
Another team from the University of Illinois, Matt Jurik and Rob Burke, also competed in the finals, as well as a team from Purdue University and Washington University from St. Louis, MO.
For more information about the State Farm Coding Competition visit http://www.sfresearchcenter.com/codingcomp/default.aspx.