A UALR team of computer science students won first place among Arkansas institutions in the Association for Computing Machinery Mid-Central USA programming contest Saturday, Nov. 5.

The UALR team named Nefarious Neckbeards — Andrew Hays of Little Rock, Harry Hull of Conway, and Keenan Gillispie of Bauxite — placed first in Arkansas and 10th among the 137 teams in the region. A team from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville came in second.

A second team, UALR TehNubz, placed eighth among Arkansas teams and 49th in the region. Members of the team include Jody Castor of Cave City, Patrick Kamongi of Kigali, Rwanda; and Aaron Young of Springdale.

Dr. Keith Bush, assistant professor of computer science, and Dr. Chia-Chu Chiang were mentors for the teams.