Wilkes dedicates contest to late professor

Approximately one year ago, Dr. Matthew Zukoski relaxed with a handful of Whoppers candies and a juice box after the culmination of the 32nd annual Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC). For eight years, the former associate professor of math and computer science helped organize part of the international contest.

Since 2000, Wilkes University has been a host site for the Mid-Atlantic Region. Zukoski served as site director since Wilkes took over the event from the University of Scranton, said Dr. Fred Sullivan, associate professor of math and computer science. Sullivan served as the site director this year.

Although Zukoski passed away last January, he still influenced many aspects of this year’s contest. On Saturday, November 7, Wilkes hosted the contest for the ninth year. The Mid-Atlantic Region’s portion of the contest was dedicated to Zukoski.

This year, a record number 24 teams from 13 schools traveled to Wilkes from as far as Quebec to participate in the ACM-ICPC, sponsored by IBM, said Jason Wagner, course web programmer for Graduate Education and systems administrator for the contest since 2006. Wagner and Zukoski worked closely to ensure that the contest avoided as many technical issues as possible each year.

“It used to be that when Matt and I would do things, we wouldn’t even have to communicate,” said Wagner. “After [working together] for four years, we knew exactly what the other person was doing.”

The contest began at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Participating teams were comprised of three students and were allotted one computer. Wilkes University’s student team, Blue and Gold, consisted of sophomores Dakota Cole, Mitchell Frear and Ed Zulkoski.

Teams had five hours to solve as many program-related problems as possible in the least amount of time. Wilkes’ Blue and Gold did not place in the regional competition, while Quebec’s University of Sherbrook’s team took first. Finalists will advance to the world finals in China this February.

Although details of the contest have not undergone many changes over the years, Zukoski’s absence this year has been observed in a variety of ways by all members of the Wilkes community involved in organizing the contest.

According to Sullivan, the Thursday before the contest, he and Wagner realized that they would need extension cords in order to move the computers and ensure their function in different rooms for the contest.

“Matt always brought his own extension cords from home,” noted Sullivan.

Aside from a few tools here and there, amusing non-essentials were missing, as well.

“Matt used to go shopping for the contest and we’d always laugh because he would get so much food that we didn’t eat,” said Wagner. “We always noticed that the foods left over at the end were ones that he liked. He’d always get candy. Whoppers – no one eats those Whoppers. But when you would go into the fridge in his office after the contest, there would be bags and bags of Whoppers.”

Wagner also noted that he had been paid for assisting with the organization of the contest the past few years. This year, however, he figured out that Zukoski had been paying him out of his own pocket.

“We found a few weeks ago that we were over-budget,” said Wagner. “We found out that Matt used to put in a lot of his own money just to make everything run smoothly and comfortably for everybody… That’s kind of the reason I agreed to do this even though I’m not a student anymore.”

Outside of this year’s ACM-ICPC, Zukoski is also missed. In classrooms and hallways, students are aware of the professor’s absence.

“Zukoski always found a way to make class fun,” said Zulkoski, a competitor in the competition this year and last. Before Zukoski’s death, Zulkoski had taken one of the professor’s computer graphics classes.

“We had one lecture where he showed us a ‘horse race’ program, but instead of using horses he had a badger, a sheep, and a pierogi dashing across the screen,” Zulkoski recalled. “He was also notorious for arriving to class five to 10 minutes late with disheveled hair from riding his bike to class. But he always managed to cram an hour and a half’s worth of material into those remaining 40 minutes, with his trademark Hi-C juice box at hand, naturally.”

Last semester, Dr. Reynold Verret, provost, told The Beacon that the university lost a “great citizen of the Wilkes community” in Zukoski’s passing. Many have been impacted by the former professor’s death and have chosen to keep him in their memories.

“[During the orientation], we did mention that the contest was in memory of Matt,” said Wagner. “Many of the coaches who had gotten to know him over the past few years talked a little about what they remembered about him, particularly the team coach from Lehigh, where Matt had completed his Ph.D.”

Over one hundred people took part in this year’s ACM-ICPC at Wilkes and took the time to remember Zukoski before the “Battle of the Brains” officially began.

Dr. Matthew J. Zukoski received his Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Wilkes University in 1986. He completed his Master's in computer science at Virginia Tech in 1990 and received his Ph.D. in computer engineering from Lehigh University in 2007. He passed away January 31, 2009 at the age of 44.