Richmond students stand out from others for many reasons, but a stark difference is the desire to excel in projects apart from — and often complementing — their regularly scheduled lineup of classes. The dedication toward extracurricular initiatives is impressive — especially when our students work alongside some of the nation’s best.

Take for instance computer science professor Prateek Bhakta’s students. Several teams of three went out on their own to compete in an International Collegiate Programming Contest regional competition. Tuan Le, ’20, David Qin, ’20, and Aalok Sathe, ’21, won the No. 1 spot locally and went on to place No. 20 out of 184, among the likes of Duke, Drexel, and Johns Hopkins.

“I’m very proud of all the students who participated … many of whom spent all semester training outside the classroom,” Bhakta said. “It’s great that students are increasingly interested in challenging themselves to solve difficult computer science puzzles, not for a course or for a job, but just for fun.”

Congratulations to Tuan, David, and Aalok — we love that you represented us at such a difficult competition!