At the first annual UF Google Games, students huddled close to their laptops, ready for a logic competition to win prizes.
The UF Association for Computing Machinery and alumni Google software engineers hosted the event Tuesday night in Turlington Hall. About 250 students completed coding and puzzle questions in teams of three to five, said Steven Hurtado, the vice president of professional affairs of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Students had to solve as many questions as they could in 90 minutes to win gift bags full of Google merchandise.
Caroline Hobson, a UF computer engineering sophomore, said she hoped her team would pull through with grit, determination and logic.
Hobson said she was excited about competing with her team since last Wednesday, when she saw the event on Facebook.
“I think it will give me some foreshadowing of what I’m expected to know later in the future when I’m a junior or a senior,” the 19-year-old said.
Hobson said she felt proud of herself for completing one of the nine puzzles. The puzzles had themes, including smartphones and Old Spice. Competitors had to write code to solve them.
“They’re really just a bunch of logic puzzles, so it’s really more about thinking outside the box than anything else,” she said.
John Zoldos, a UF computer engineering senior, felt prepared to take home the title of Google Games Champion.
“It seemed like a cool thing to do with friends while also networking with Google recruiters,” the 21-year-old said.
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(From left to right) Master's computer science students, 35-year-old Pradeep Rajan and 25-year-old Harshit Vijayvargia, excitedly open goodie bags from Google. Rajan and Vijayvargia were some of the lucky few who ran up to get these bags.
Students gathered to register and meet with their teams before the start of the Google Games. About 250 students registered to compete.
