ACSL

American Computer Science League

Newsletter #1

January 2012

CONTEST #1

Welcome to 34th year of the contests of the American Computer Science League. The League welcomes all the new schools and all the returning schools from last year. Some of those schools have been in the League for more than 20 years. The League also welcomes those teams from outside the United States. Those schools are from Canada, Romania, Croatia, England, Slovenia, the Republic of Korea and a first a school from The Peoples Republic of China.

ACSL WEB SITE

The scores for Contest #1 for both teams and individuals are posted on our web site www.acsl.org. . If you note a missing score, an incorrect score or a misspelled name, please contact ACSL at info@acsl.org and we will make the corrections. Due to a large number of schools that entered the contest near our deadline, several scores are missing. Those scores will be posted on a weekly basis during January 2012. It is our hope that all scores will be posted prior to the start of Contest #2.

APPEALS

There were no valid appeals in any of the divisions for Contest #1

STUDENT PROGRAMS

Students, their parents and advisors like to see their student's programs posted to our web site. To insure that a program has a chance for selection, prior to submitting the code for those students who scored a 10, please insure that the following information is in the heading of the code:

· The student’s name

· The school name

· The student’s division

SCORESHEETS

Please use the ACSL scoresheet when submitting scores. Send it as an attached .doc file and not pasted into the body of the e-mail message. The uniformity of score sheets decreases the number of entry errors. Also, Starting with Contest #2 you need to record cumulative scores for both team scores and individual student scores on all scoresheets. The cumulative score acts as a double check that scores have been recorded accurately. Remember that scoresheets are sent to scores@acsl.org.

ALL-STAR CONTEST

The site of the 2012 ACSL Invitational All-Star Contest is West Chester East High School, 450 Ellis Lane, West Chester PA 19380. The host advisor is Milt Scholl. The school phone number is 484-266-3800. Milt can be contacted at mscholl@wcasd.net.

The contest date is Saturday, May 26, 2012. The All-star Contest starts at 8:30 AM and ends at approximately 5:30 PM. Lunch is provided at the contest site. Breakfast is not available.

Hotel space in the area is very limited due to a very large soccer tournement. As a result ACSL was forced to reserve hotel space in downtown Philadelphia at the Courtyard by Marriott. ACSL plans to have transportation from the hotel to the school and back on the day of the contest. There will be a per person charge for transportation.

For the past 18 years ACSL has used the same travel agent to find the best group rates at hotels close to our Al-Star Contest sites. Elana Glinert has done an excellent job of getting ACSL the best prices available. The staff that runs ACSL has used Elana for personal travel also. If you are in need of a travel agent to assist in any of your All-star Contest plans, we highly recommend her services. Elana can be contacted by e-mail:

elana@berkmayertravel.com

ALL-STAR CONTEST COMPUTERS

The agreement with only allows for a limited number of computers. The vast majority of those will go to the teams coming from Europe. Teams should plan to supply their own computers this year. Please start planning now to insure that your invited teams will have computers.

GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

ACSL has grouped the teams in the various divisions into geographic regions. The purpose of the regions is to create more places where ACSL can award prizes. The highest scoring team in each region will be awarded a plaque. The highest scoring student (s) in each region will also be awarded a plaque. In the event of ties, duplicate awards will be made. Most of the above awards will be presented at the All-star Contest in May. Plaques will be mailed to those not present. The regions are now posted to the web site in the georegions link.