Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Canadian University Stages Online Contest to Attract Computer-Science Students By JANICE PASKEY Lethbridge, Alberta The University of Lethbridge calls itself the "jewel on the prairie," but this institution in a city of 70,000, one hour north of Montana, has stiff competition for students. So to attract computer-science students, it is staging a unique online competition. Called "Go Figure," the contest requires students to break a code that uses three-digit numbers in place of letters of the alphabet -- and then solve a mathematics problem written in the code. Those who succeed are placed in a drawing for one year's free tuition, worth $2,864. The second and third prizes are worth $636 and $318, respectively. So far, 1,000 students have tried it, and 100 have succeeded. Anyone having trouble is connected by electronic mail to a math or computer-science professor at Lethbridge. Posters advertising the competition have been sent to high schools in parts of Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Andrew Tomkins, 16, of Brampton, Ontario, decoded and solved the problem. "I recognized a pattern in the poster right away and thought it would be fun," he says. He spent nine hours over three days cracking the code and says the contest led him to look into Lethbridge's program. "It's definitely one of my main choices," he says. Tim Frison, 16, of Rocky Mountain House, in northern Alberta, heard about the program from a friend who went to a career fair. He spent three days working on it after school. "I thought decoding was cool," he says. "That part only took half an hour, but the math equation was tricky." He was put in touch with a Lethbridge professor for help with the terminology, after finding the online-hints section not very useful. Mr. Frison says he's strong in math and science, and if he wins the scholarship, he'll attend Lethbridge. If not, Lethbridge still will be one of his choices. "This program puts us in touch with students," says Barbara Williams, Lethbridge's coordinator of student liaison. "I have one student asking me how likely it is he'll win -- he wants to know about the competitive pool. "A lot of math teachers have told me they use Go Figure in their class," she continues. "The math kids tell me it's a cakewalk, but only 10 percent are successful, so it is a challenge, but not over the top." M2 Communications, a company in Winnipeg, Manitoba, developed Go Figure for the university. Doug Martin, the company's president, says: "Ninety-nine percent of the students see it and don't have a clue, but one percent recognize this poster is written in computer code and will begin to crack it. These one percent with strong math skills are the students we're after for Lethbridge." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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