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Congratulations to our December Coder and Designers of the Month!


Algorithm: pengshangfu

pengshangfu, December 2008 Algorithm Coder of the Month

What brought you to TopCoder?
My classmates.

How does it feel to be the Coder of the Month?
It's unbelievable. I never thought I could be the Coder of the Month. I think I'm so lucky and I will try my best to be better.

What is your favorite hobby besides TopCoder?
Sports like basketball, football, tennis, swimming. Also mathematics and history.

What is one thing that you have learned at TopCoder that has helped you in other areas of your life?
When I do something, I'm more efficient and faster.


Component Design: AleaActaEst

This photo really sets the tone for Toronto this time of year.

What brought you to TopCoder?
I will answer this in two stages:
What brought me to TopCoder is the need to compete :) I love competitions and TopCoder is the best competition engine around.
What keeps me with TopCoder is the awesome community, the great competition I get from them, and the fact that TopCoder makes a good thing better no matter what the circumstances are. This is a growing, living, thing :) It makes me alive... I currently cannot imagine life without TopCoder... and also puts some really good money in the community's pockets :)

How does it feel to be the Coder of the Month?
It is an amazing feeling. There are so many great competitors that being chosen as the design of the month is a great honor. December is especially dear to me since I had a number of problems competing and there were just such great competitors around! So that made it doubly hard :)
Kudos goes to MiG-29, argolite, zsudraco, and the other competitors who push the envelope and thus push me as well.

What is your favorite hobby besides TopCoder?
There are a number of hobbies that I try to divide my time evenly around with occasional spurts of dedicated activity. I like to write short stories (especially science-fiction) and would like to get published one day, and I also started doing music again (after a year or so hiatus). I am currently concentrating on acoustic guitar. I also do daily stock trading and analysis (nothing special) and these days it is quite a wild experience! Apart from that I would say it would be sports. And if I have time, I like to watch a good movie... but time is kind of scarce now :)

What is one thing that you have learned at TopCoder that has helped you in other areas of your life?
TopCoder has forced me to be more organized. When you have serious competition you have to take all things seriously and by nature I am not a serious person. TopCoder has also made me very appreciative of organized efforts. I primarily do design competitions and I have to support them during development and I really appreciate more and more of all people's input into the process (which TopCoder has made so seamless). Without the architect I would have no designs to make, and without the developers I would not learn how the design really faired. And without the assemblers it would not be integrated... and without TopCoder there would be none of it :)


Component Development: utlovey

utlovey, December 2008 Developer Coder of the Month, image 1  utlovey, December 2008 Developer Coder of the Month, image 2  

1) utlovey with his girlfriend on vacation in WuXi; 2) TongJi University.

What brought you to TopCoder?
My classmate introduced the TopCoder to me and I think joining it is the best way to improve my skills.

How does it feel to be the Coder of the Month?
Very surprised and excited. I feel lucky to be chosen as the coder of this month.

What is your favorite hobby besides TopCoder?
I like playing soccer and watching soccer match since my childhood. It brings me perseverance and a lot of happiness.

What is one thing that you have learned at TopCoder that has helped you in other areas of your life?
Value your time and work efficiently. I think it is the most important thing what I learned in TopCoder.


Studio Design: lunarkid

lunarkid, December 2008 Developer Coder of the Month, image 1  lunarkid, December 2008 Developer Coder of the Month, image 2  

1) My close up photo with my MacBook Pro 15" camera, which obviously I bought because of my payments at TC. :-P
2) Location : Small Town of Pulu Raja, subdistrict of Pulau Rakyat, Regency of Asahan, Province of North Sumatera , Indonesia. This is the backyard of my home with watermelon ( mmm, yummy :-p ) plants shattered around between an old dead palm oil tree,that sometimes in the night me and my friends sneak around to take our parts. :-D.

What brought you to Studio?
One day, I read on my local newspaper about abedavera winning at the 2007 TopCoder Collegiate Challenge. I then searched all about TopCoder on Google, and took my step on Studio where my journey began. :-).

How does it feel to be the Designer of the Month?
Surprised of course, it was my lucky month :-P.
It makes me realize there's too much that I don't know yet.

What is your favorite hobby besides Studio?
Watching movies, playing pc games, reading, playing futsal.

What is one thing that you have learned at Studio that has helped you in other areas of your life?
Always give your best works anytime everywhere, never give up, and be a fighter of your own life. :-)