Notes for 2018 Contest

Agenda

  • General schedule of events for Saturday
    • 8:00 AM - Registration starts
    • 8:00 AM - someone from each site joins Slack
    • 8:30 AM - Welcome, brief rules (Video Chat)
    • 9:15 AM - Practice contest starts
    • 10:00 AM - Practice Contest ends
    • 10:xx AM - Lunch starts
    • 11:00 AM - Rules Refinement (Video Chat)
      • Note that Kattis will allow login for incorrect contest
    • Noon - Regional Contest starts (signalled via Slack)
    • 1:00 PM - Coaches Roundtable (Video Chat)
    • 4:00 PM - scoreboard freezes
    • 5:00 PM - Regional Contest ends
    • 5:02 PM - Contestant machines re unlocked
      • Kattis allows teams to login and access all submissions after contest
    • 5:12 PM - Contestant machines get shutdown
    • 5:15 PM - Talks by local folks start
    • 5:xx PM - super starts
    • 5:45 PM (5:30 PM ideally) - Contest Problem Review (Video Chat)
    • 6:15 PM - Awards announcement/resolver (Video Chat)
  • Video Conferencing
    • Will be done with BlueJeans
    • Ideally each site has a meeting room with a projector to show the video conference
    • Prefer to have each site broadcasting a webcam of their students in the room but not mandatory
    • All presentations for SCUSA will be done over video con
    • We will use the one video conference meeting for the whole weekend
  • Logins! Logins! Logins!
    • Login to the contest image: team-XXXX
    • Login to Kattis for practice: scusa18practice-team-XXXX
    • Login to Kattis for regional: scusa18-team-XXXX
    • Passwords will be different for practice and regional competitions
    • Each site should have login instructions for practice and regional
      • site-contest.txt - Regional contest team printouts
      • site-practice.txt - Practice contest team printouts
      • site-registration.txt - Team printouts with just usernames
      • site-secret.txt - all usernames and passwords
      • site-summary.txt - no passwords
  • Registration
    • Coach to register the team to not crowd the registration table with students
    • Coach will receive team t-shirts and any extra info such as:
      • Team info sheet (not password sheet)
      • Rules?
    • Since we will be only doing a one day contest, registration needs to happen quickly
  • Contest Rooms
    • Two teams from the same school should not be seated next to each other
    • Prefer to print labels for each machine that help teams find their computer to sit at
  • How we will run the practice and regional contest
    • Make sure that contestants know to NEVER power down, reboot machines. They login after contest starts and log off when before they leave (for both practice and regional contests)
    • Need at least one staff member/trusted volunteer in each room where contestants are competing
    • 15 minutes before start of competition, each site checks in to confirm that their site is ready
    • Teams should be sitting at their space at least a few minutes before start
    • Problem sets (3) and login instructions under keyboard (or similar) before contest starts
    • Slack channel (operations) will be used by me to announce start, at that time each site tells to team to start
    • Only then may they login to the computer and open the packet and look at the problems
    • Scoreboard will freeze at 1 hour left in competition to build anticipation for winner
    • Time warnings at 1 hour to go (when scoreboard finishes), 30 to go, 15 to go , end
    • Contest ends – all sites confirm that they have announced end
    • Internet will be restored for 10 minutes (so teams can upload code)
    • Tell teams to NOT turn machines off or unplug USB keys
    • Shuffle teams out of rooms shortly after end of contest
    • Once students are gone, sites can clean the contest area and return to normal
    • Students should not leave with a prod copy of the contest image!!
  • All communication during contests will be through Slack!
  • Site should provide
    • Scratch sheets of paper
    • Writing utensils
  • Printing at each site
    • Runner at printer should distribute printout to teams
    • Printouts should have a cover sheet with team name but it is application-dependent
  • Prizes