Dixie State College Association for Computing Machinery (ACM Club)
About ACM
Dixie State College's Association of Computing Machinery Club, also known as The Computer Club, provides computer enthusiasts a place to meet, form friendships, share ideas and play computer games. The club meets every week, alternating between learning workshops (where refreshments are provided), and fun game nights.
Each fall semester we participate in the A.C.M.'s international programming contest. During the spring semester our club sponsors a local programming contest for Dixie State College students and students from the local high schools.
ACM is held every Thursday at 7:30 in UHB 119. Activities alternate between workshops and game nights. Workshops consist of a speaker and snacks. Game nights conist of playing games like Starcraft, Nexius, Warcraft, DOTA and more, maybe. See the schedule for upcoming activities.
Welcome back and Happy New Year 2012 to all. This Thursday January 19
in room UHB 119 at 7:30 pm we will hold our opening social. There will
be pizza and drinks. We will also hold the ACM elections. Below is a
summary of the positions available for the year 2012 - 2013
President-elect: Works with the existing president through the end of the spring semester, becomes president from Fall 2012--Spring 2013.
Primary duties: representing the club in all student government meetings, etc. Organizing and leading various events through the year, including the Homecoming parade entry, a club rush booth, a freshmen week booth, etc. Leading the preparations for the spring contest. Introducing presenters at workshops.
Vice president: serves from Spring 2012--Fall 2013.
Primary duties: assisting president in all club business. Organizing game nights. Organizing treats for workshop nights.
Secretary: serves from Spring 2012--Fall 2013.
Primary duties: assisting president in all club business. Arranging publicity for club events. Managing club website.
The elections will be open to nominations (self nominations are okay)
until Thursday, January 19, when we will hold the actual election.
Nominations are made by emailing the faculty adviser Russ Ross
russ@dixie.edu The candidates will also need to visit Russ some time
before the ACM meeting so he can explain the responsibilities of the
office.
Jan 26: Dynamic Programming
For our first workshop of the semester, we will explore one kind of
programming problem that appears almost every year at the regional
programming contest: dynamic programming. This is a hard type of
problem for most people, so we will devote a few workshops this
semester to exploring these problems and learning how to implement
solutions effectively. This week, we will introduce dynamic
programming, talk about how it works, show a few examples, and then
work on a specific problem. We will discuss how to solve the problem
at a high level as a group, then split up and work on implementing
actual solutions. Finally, we will review what participants came up
with and look at a working solution to our example problem.
This is open to programmers at all skill levels. We will learn how to
solve this specific problem before doing any coding, so your task will
be focused more on implementing the algorithm rather than trying to
solve a hard problem. At another workshop, if there is sufficient
interest, we will pose a similar problem to be solved during the
workshop time slot, giving you a chance to attack the problem solving
part of it as well as the implementation part. The design part will
be easier to do when you have already worked through the details of
implementation on a similar problem.
When working on the implementations, we will divide into groups. If
you are not a confident programmer, you can team up with stronger
programmers and work with them on an implementation. This is a great
way to become a stronger coder. It should be a good learning
experience for everyone!
Thurs, Feb 2: Game Night
Thurs, Feb 9: Workshop: Dynamic Programming - Part 2
Thurs, Feb 16: TBA Vote for your favorite!
Fall 2011 Schedule
September
Sept 8: Opening Social: Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail & Pizza
Every year the ACM Club sends two or more teams to compete in the regional programming contest. In past years they have done very well, even coming in first in 2008. If you'd like to participate please contact one of the club officers.
Kimberly Empey, President, Fall 2010
David Horne, President, 2009 - Spring 2010
Stephanie Adams, President, 2008
Daniel Evans, President, 2007
Pete Kholman, President, 2006
Victorious Vice Presidents
Kay Messinger, Vice President, 2010
Stephanie Adams, Vice President, 2007
Stupendous Secretaries
Jonathan Walker, Secretary, 2009
David Horne, 2007-2008
Nov 4: Final Cut Pro & Adobe Premiere Presentation by Professor Ron Woodland
Nov 11: Game Night
Nov 18: MongoDB with Andrew Page
Nov 25: Thanksgiving
December
Dec 25: Christmas
Spring 2010 Schedule
Jan 7: Game Night
Jan 14: Opening Social
Jan 21: Game Night
Jan 28: Using AJAX
Feb 4: Game Night
Feb 11: Karen Willard on Game Development
Feb 18: Game Night
Feb 25: Daniel Evans on Basic SQL OptimizationDownload Files
March 3: Game Night
March 10: Spring Break!
March 17: Latex with Russ Ross
March 24: Game Night
March 31: Daniel Evans on Programming Contests
April 7: Game Night
April 14: DJ Holt on Ruby on Rails
April 21: Game Night
April 28: Closing Social
Fall 2009 Schedule
NOTE: Thursdays not listed below are game nights or holidays.
Sep 10: Opening Social
Sep 17: git, by Russ Ross of Dixie State College
Oct 01: Intro to Silverlight, by Ian Reed of Win Web Experts
Oct 22: "Understand" software, by Heidi and Pete of Scientific Toolworks
Oct 31: REGIONAL PROGRAMMING CONTEST
Nov 05: Dreamweaver, by Kirby Cook
Nov 19: Quantum Computing, by Curtis Larsen of Dixie State College
Dec 10: Open Source Software, by Daniel Evans
