On Thursday, March 30, expert coders from Altia and X-IO Technologies competed in a Code Battle with members of the Colorado College Coding Club.

Almost 20 people competed in the coder-against-coder CodeFights tournament. The battle consisted of two “Codewriting” challenges. Contestants were presented with an algorithmic problem that they had to solve given a specified set of limitations – all in 15 minutes. Competitors could choose from a variety of coding languages as their “weapon” of choice – C#, C++, HTML, Java, Python, Ruby, Visual Basic and others. While developing their own solutions against a ticking clock, contestants were presented with real-time updates on their opponents. The pressure was intense!

“The pure creativity the students used during the Code Battle blew me away! It was inspiring to see the fresh approach and resourcefulness that they used to tackle the challenges,” shared Paco Sandoval, Altia Senior Embedded Software Engineer and Expert Code Warrior. “It was exciting, too, to see how much fun they were having during the contest. You need that kind of passion to write software for a living.”

 

Before the Code Battle, our CEO, Mike Juran, gave an overview about Altia and the HMI software industry. The Altia team members had the opportunity to meet the Colorado College students one-on-one to learn more about them and answer questions they had about our company.

This Code Battle was a tremendous opportunity for Colorado College, for Altia and for our community. Interaction between industry and academia is powerful and important – driving development of new methods, technologies and cutting-edge innovation. At the same time, these types of engagements and partnerships help to create a knowledgeable, experienced pipeline of new talent as students graduate and seek employment after college.

We look forward to building solid, long-term relationships with Colorado College and other academic institutions – in Colorado and beyond!