LANParty1

When I came to Gannon, I found out we have a student chapter of the worldwide Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM. Upon hearing the name, I decided the club wasn’t for me. I assumed it was a club based on designing computer software and hardware.

I was right – but there’s much more to it. I’m glad I opened my mind and tried something new.

Gannon’s ACM focuses mostly on promoting everything related to computers and computer science. The club members, who can be any major, give lectures on computer programming languages used to write computer software – like Scheme and NetBeans – participate in programming competitions and host LAN parties.

LANParty 2A LAN party is a gathering in which members connect computers to a local area network (LAN) and play multiplayer video games. I was able to attend one of the two parties of the semester.

The games we played were Warsow, Unreal Tournament, Halo and Age of Empires. Each game was installed by ACM members on computers in one of Gannon’s labs. After playing games and eating dinner, I learned how much fun Gannon’s ACM members have.

“It’s fun socializing with people of a like mind – and pizza,” said junior, software engineering major and ACM member Mike Grimes.

ACM President and sophomore software engineering major Brent Elder said the club hosts LAN parties to allow students to sit down and enjoy a good time.

Junior software engineering major and ACM member Alex Frombach added that the club needs more members to attend so they can have eight vs. eight style games.
Each party this semester had eight people in attendance, Elder said, adding that the members are very welcoming and would be interested in having new members attend.

“It’s a break from classes,” Elder said, “a break from [computer] programming.”


High school students: if you like programming, enter Gannon’s annual Computer Programming Contest!