Announcing the 2016 Atomic Games!

We’re very excited to announce that we’re hosting our second annual Atomic Games event at our new office in Grand Rapids on October 22!

The Atomic Games is a development competition for college students. It’s open to folks pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a related program. Two-person teams create a board game artificial intelligence then face off against each other for the chance to win $500! Atomic will also be on the lookout for people to join our team in 2017 as interns or full-time developers.

Response to the 2015 Games

Last year’s participants really enjoyed the event. Their responses have encouraged us to make this a regular opportunity for college students going forward:

“The 2015 Games was a great time–writing an AI for the first time was a cool experience to have, and along the way I gained a lot of general programming knowledge that I still use today. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to not only write code that forced me to think differently from the way I have in my courses, but to also do so in a way that was exciting.” – Morgan Oneka

“The games were awesome. Not only was it fun to create our own AIs and then have them compete against each other, but the food was great and I really learned a lot.  It was a really valuable experience to interact with real-life developers in a local consultancy.  When driving home I thought to myself, ‘This Atomic Object place seems like a great spot to work or have an internship.’ I’ve been interning at AO for two months now, and I believe even more that it really is a great place, and now I can’t wait for the next Atomic Games!” – Joel Stehouwer

“The Atomic Games are a perfect example of how programming can be a ton of fun. I spent a day with my friends, and got to know several developers at Atomic and peers at other schools.” – Dan Kelch

Reasons to Attend

Shawn Crowley’s Othello Challenge post lays out our goals for the Games and gives a detailed walkthrough of the day’s schedule. This year’s competition follows the same format and features a new challenge for contestants to tackle.

As Shawn wrote last year, we expect the Atomic Games will be valuable for students by:

• Bringing students from multiple schools together and introducing them to the technology community
• Having students work in Atomic’s office so they get a better idea of what a creative office environment is like
• Challenging students with a more open-ended programming assignment than they likely get in their classes so they can get an idea of what professional work would be like
• Pairing students with developers from Atomic so they can get perspective on the skills and experience they will gain in their professional careers
• Opening up potential job opportunities through relationships built at the event (Atomic hired five contestants from last year’s Games for full-time and internship positions.)

How to Apply

Please visit our Atomic Games website and fill out the form to apply for the event! Or if you know a student who’d enjoy the event, please share the news!