Friday, October 24, 1997
Bruins and Trojans compete to rid software of hidden errors
Symantec hosts beta-test ‘bug bash’ for UCLA, USC students
By Cindy Choi
Daily Bruin Contributor
It is known as a "bug bash," and computer-science major Dan
Manheim was one of the 63 students who attended.
Last weekend, a group of USC and UCLA computer-science majors
gathered in the Santa Monica computer laboratory of Symantec Corp.
to beta test a new version of its software in a contest.
In the final stages of software development, beta testers track
down defects and problems by running it through a series of
operations. In short, they play around with the program.
Although Symantec has an internal quality-control staff, the
fresh insight from people unfamiliar to the program gets it as
close to perfection as possible, said Stephen Gorrell, the
company’s software quality-assurance manager.
"It is harder for people who work on the program to find bugs,"
said third-year student William Liu.
The company could not feasibly bring the program to campuses to
beta test due to the unavailability of computers, so they brought
UCLA and USC students to their lab, Gorrell said.
Thirty-five UCLA students spent four hours in a corporate
office’s laboratory hunting down cosmetic errors like spelling or
program defects.
Although they did not originally intend to ignite the rivalry,
the history of the two schools naturally turned the event into a
competition.
Because USC worked and left in the morning, they never saw the
10 "Beat SC" screen savers designed in the afternoon by UCLA, said
Antony Nguyen, a second-year computer-science student.
Aside from visiting a software company for the first time,
students contributed to the process of making software, remarked
Liu.
"It was pretty cool because we got to try out an unreleased
product," Manheim said.
When the product comes out, the credits will feature a
photograph of both groups.
At the end of the day, the USC group won, beating UCLA in the
bugs-found count, 118 to 115.
To the bitter envy of all the students, a USC student also won a
fully loaded computer through a raffle.
All participants received T-shirts, mugs, the current version of
the software and free pizza.
"We were pleased with the results and the quality of the work of
the students," Gorrell said.
The organizers also talked to the students about current
internship programs at the company.
Symantec got a good deal out of this – nearly 200 hours of
volunteer labor in exchange for a computer and some food, Nguyen
said.
In the future, students have another chance to beat USC.
Symantec plans to have another event within the next six months,
Gorrell said.