By Summer Crawford
News Editor
@summercrawfordd
To most, Lockheed Martin is a place where innovations are born, ranging in topics from aerospace and defense to advanced technology. For three Coppell High School sophomores, it was the fresh start of a new team.
On April 18 CHS’s Code Quest team, consisting of Sachin Beldona, Sidharth Vadduri and Samir Naqvi, dominated in its first year effort towards competing in computer programming and coding competitions. The team went head-to-head with students from powerhouse schools at the Code Quest contest, procuring first place in the Novice Division.
Previously competing at the University of Texas at Dallas’ (UTD) computer science contest, these students utilized their skills and improved communication between each other.
“Code Quest is a contest that is run by Lockheed Martin every year,” computer science teacher and Code Quest sponsor Jan McClintock said. “I was not aware of it until this year, and the same three students that I took to Code Quest had already come and asked me to be their coach for a UTD programming contest.”
Going for their second recognition this year, the team was looking forward to being in a new location with excellent teams.
“We coded Java problems ranging from easy difficulty to higher [difficulty],” Naqvi said. “The person with the most points wins. During the actual competition it was fun and we were surrounded by pretty good team like Plano High School. We divided and conquered.”
However, Code Quest was not all work and no play. The team explored the facility and its neat key features.
“We got to tour the facility and see the airplanes that they make,” Vadduri said. “[We] got to see the runways and [some] planes take off.”
For programming there are teams of two to three students at one computer being given 15-20 problems created by Lockheed Martin engineers. With 2.5 hours to solve them, students finish as many as possible and then submit them through a computer system to judges. The system will tell they judge which questions are correct, and the judge will then make the call. The Novice Division and Advanced Division do the same exact questions, however, the Advanced Division teams typically finish more.
Lockheed Martin limited teams to one team per school that entered Code Quest. A limit of two to three students was also placed on team member size.
McClintock saw the level of communication between the members, how well they worked co-dependently and felt confident in their abilities. Although she knew the team dynamics, she was still surprised when the results were released.
“Since I knew those three had already done programming contests, [I knew] you have to really be able to work [together]. There is one computer, people writing and people typing so it is a necessity that they can work together as a team,” McClintock said.
While combining their highly defined skills with computers and coding, Beldona, Vadduri and Naqvi were exposed to real world application problems and a critical thinking environment. In college Beldona hopes to major in computer theory, Vadduri in computer engineering and Naqvi in finance and computer science. Being on this team and competing together only furthers their passion for computer science.
