Our latest MATLAB Programming Contest is nearing completion. Since this is an election year, the puzzle this time (“Gerrymander”) is to divide a state into electoral districts of equal population. If you want to see real gerrymandering in action, look at this: 107th Congressional Districts. Dallas/Ft. Worth is particularly interesting.
Matt has done almost all the heavy lifting for the contest this time. Way to go, Matt! Check out the cool statistics page he’s put together. Be sure and tune in for the exciting 5 PM finale tomorrow afternoon.
Matt and I gave a presentation about the contest at IBM Watson Research Center in Cambridge last January. Based on that talk, there was enough interest to get me invited to write an article about the contest for CHI interactions magazine. Here’s the link, but you need an ACM membership to read the whole thing: In praise of tweaking: a wiki-like programming contest.
Rambles Blog at Star Chamber 