Rochester-based team named National Coding Champions

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Five area students, many of whom are still in middle school, took home first place in the BDPA National Coding Competition.

“We worked really well together as a team.”

These students were asked to code a site that parallels a networking website, like LinkedIn. This task follows up a 6-month long boot camp program offered by the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), known as the Youth Computer Training Program (YCTP).

“The information that we all learned through this program, it definitely made it a lot easier,” said competitor Lucy Evans.

The team said their incorporation of generative AI, and the addition of a network system was what set them apart.

“We wanted to implement it and we kind of worked together to figure out the mechanism for that,” said Competitor Gautam Viruthagiri.

“We worked really well together as a team and that really helped it,” said competitor Samual Kaspar.

Rochester-based groups are no stranger to success at this event. VP of Member Services Toni Adafin says Rochester teams place high quite often.

“Over the years, when we’ve competed in Rochester, we have always placed pretty high,” Adafin says.

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