The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory is. Such was the case for FEU Alabang’s programming university team, Paragons, when they won as Champions in the recent Young Software Engineers’ Coding Competition.
According to FEU Alabang’s ACM Student Chapter adviser and Paragons coach Ms. Resty F. Aldana, the team was invited by the Young Software Engineers’ Society (YSES) to join the competition last May 10-14.
“The coding competition was part of YSES’ week-long celebration of their organization. We decided to join because we want to further expose our Paragons to actual competitions,” Ms. Resty shared. “Also, this is a way to test and see their capabilities against other competitors because our ultimate goal is to qualify for national programming competitions.”
Seeing this moment as a stepping stone towards their goal, the Computer Studies professor immediately tapped three brilliant third year students to represent FEU Alabang. Among the selected students were Isaiah Thomas A. Galay (BSIT-WMA), Jens Gabriel T. Jovellano (BSCS-SE), and Cedric James S. Lora (BSIT-AGD).
“Actually, it was very sudden. We were just informed that we’re going to compete a day before so we were a little bit shocked,” Cedric recalled. “But all in all, everything’s good because despite the short notice, we were kind of ready to compete --- thanks to our regular programming practice every sem.”
Cedric added that in his two years of being a Paragon member and competing in various competitions, this was the first time they won as Champions. “I’m very happy na sa sobrang saya ko, tumatalon talon na ako sa bahay kasi first time kong manalo sa programming competition.”
His teammates Isaiah and Jens also felt ecstatic when they had a little intuition that they’re about to bring home the bacon.
“YSES has a discord server and we can see the leaderboard there. I was looking at our score vis-a-vis the scores of our opponents.So finally, when they made it official that our team won, we were so ecstatic!” Jens shared.
Isaiah even disclosed that they were far from winning during the first few days of the competition.
“It was during the latter part that we gained a score because no other team was able to answer the final difficult problem except us. So, when we saw our score on the last day of the competition, we felt that this victory was already ‘in the bag’. We just needed to maintain our ranking and that’s why we became more competitive.”
Paragons before and after winning the competition
Victory doesn’t always come easy and a team wouldn’t be successful without exerting a plentiful amount of hard work. This is why the Paragons members made sure to assess every question and consult with their coach on how they can improve their performance.
LOOK: “Team Rush-B”, the group name chosen by the Paragons, was announced as the winner of the YSES competition.
“At the end of each day during the competition, we told Ma’am Resty about our experience like what happened and what problems were difficult to solve. Then, she gave online resources which can help us to be more efficient in the competition,” Cedric said.
Ms. Resty also commended the team’s initiative to evaluate their daily experience so they can really assess which areas to improve on. “I really commend their effort to review and evaluate every experience all throughout the competition. From telling me what’s lacking in Paragons all the way to the things they needed to improve on.”
Because of these strategies, the students were able to ace the problems that required a lot of understanding and knowledge in other subject areas apart from programming.
Ms. Resty said, “That’s really the challenge, I must say. The process of understanding the problems because they are written in a very complex way. Sometimes, these are mathematical problems and other times, they will require your comprehension. Plus, they’re long and complicated so you really need to level up your comprehension and math skills. Not just programming.”
Further, Isaiah exclaimed that thanks to the team’s victory, they now feel more credible and confident to join more competitions in the future. “Now, we feel more optimistic that we can also win in other upcoming competitions.”
Gratitude to Paragons’ coach and CCSMA Director
Of course, this success wouldn’t be possible without the guidance and support from the FEU Alabang’s College of Computer Studies and Multimedia Arts (CCSMA). Cedric, Jens, and Isaiah expressed how grateful they are for the trust and opportunity given to them.
“I’m very thankful for Ma’am Resty because since we were freshmen, she already saw and acknowledged our potential,” Isaiah quipped.
Cedric added, “I really like to thank Ma’am Resty as well for choosing us to be part of the programming varsity team because it’s a really big opportunity for me.”
Meanwhile, Jens admitted that because of Ma’am Resty’s guidance, he was able to bring out the best in him. “I’m super grateful because despite being a very lazy person, she always insisted that I join different programming competitions. Because of her, I became more passionate about programming.”
LOOK: Members of the Paragons, together with their coach Ms. Resty F. Aldana, pose for a smile during an online interview with FEU Tech’s Communications Office.
Ms. Resty, on the other hand, gave a special mention about the effort and persistence of their CCSMA Director Mr. Joferson Bombasi when it comes to encouraging students to join various local competitions.
“Sir Jof, our Director, is really ambitious. He doesn’t like us to be left behind. What he wants is for FEU Alabang to enter the spotlight and build a name for itself even though we are just starting. So if there are competitions, he wants us to join,” she said.
“That’s really our direction here at FEU Alabang. We want our students to enter the spotlight, to be exposed in various competitions.”
The Paragons, under FEU Alabang’s ACM Student Chapter, is looking for new members this coming school year. If you are interested to be part of the university’s programming varsity team, sign up now at: bit.ly/ParagonsRegForm
Watch their full interview by clicking the links below!
