EAST LOS ANGELES : 3 Among Winners in Computer Contest

Eastside students were among the year’s top winners in the 15th annual Rockwell International-Los Angeles Unified School District computer-science competition.

Finalists included Daniel Yun and Mike Nguyen of Bravo Medical Magnet and Alonso Favela of Garfield High School. The two seniors were among four students granted a $1,000 first prize. Yun submitted an idea for a computer game, “Armageddon: The Final Assault,” and Favela submitted an idea for a bulletin-board system that enables students and teachers to communicate electronically and access on-line databases.

Nguyen, a senior, was awarded a $500 second prize for an idea for a computer program called “Souls of War,” which depicts the casualties of war.

The competition included 27 students from throughout the district who were judged for technical complexity, innovation and presentation, said Rockwell spokesman Virgilio Labrador.

This year’s competition theme was “Technology: Focus on the Future.”

“The main purpose of the competition is to promote gender equity in the study of computers and access to knowledge of computers,” Labrador said. “We’re trying to bridge the gap of computer knowledge and access across racial, economic and intellectual lines.”

The competition was established in 1978 in a partnership between Rockwell International and the Information Technology Division of the school district.

The grand prize of $2,000 was awarded to two students from Van Nuys High School for a model of a life-support system for use in a self-contained bio-unit such as a space station or planetary colony.