While it’s common to think of trophy collectors as athletes and fine arts performers, a new group of computer science competitors is hoping to pick up some hardware to show off.

Elizabeth Phillips’ computer science students are taking their skills to the competitive arena as they compete in various competitions, including the University Interscholastic League’s regional competitions. It’s the first year that Akins has fielded computer science students in competition since Phillips reestablished the elective sequence in the New Tech Academy last year.

In early January, juniors Xeon Gutierrez, Thomas Cross and Anthony Cain, began their competitive season by participating in a Computer Science UIL Invitational meet sponsored by Indeed. The team scored first place in the novice category.

“I believe that the competition was much more difficult than what I originally anticipated, but I still believe that the upcoming competitions will still be difficult, but still going to a lot of fun to go to.” Cross said.

Competitive programming is nothing new for Xeon Gutierrez, who won fifth place at the national Business Professionals of America convention in California, competing in the C# programming language category.

“I personally enjoy solving problems that have not been solved before and the satisfaction of finally fixing an issue.” Gutierrez said.

Java, the world’s most common computer language, will be used in this year’s Computer Science UIL competition.

“It’s a lot of real world experience in programming because, the competitions you program something as you would in real life, you actually need to come up with the solution yourself,” Gutierrez said.

“The students gain experience for the real world and the possibility of rewards during the competitions,” Phillips said.

With the bonus of a prize, not only do the students achieve goals, but they also benefit from the knowledge they gain.