Six (6) computer science and software engineering students from the University of Victoria (UVic) competed in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Pacific Northwest regional programming competition on November 7th, 2009, hosted by the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), Canada.
The competition involves teams, each of which has three (3) students, working together to solve problems with algorithm design and program implementation over a five-hour period. Time penalties are given to teams when they give wrong answers to the problems. The team that solves the most problems in the least amount of time wins. The Pacific Northwest region consists of teams from universities in BC, Washington State, Oregon, Hawaii, and northern California. Approximately 80 teams took part in the competition last Saturday.
UVic’s top team, Vikes White, consisting of second-year students John Hawthorn, Scott Porter, and Dan Sanders finished 4th with seven (7) problems solved, just behind two teams from Stanford University and the winning team from UBC. The second UVic team, Vikes Blue, consisting of Tyler Cadigan, Tim Song, and Tristin Sturgess, finished 22nd with five (5) problems solved. This is only UVic’s second time competing in the regional competition in recent years. The teams are coached by UVic PhD graduate and postdoctoral researcher Sean Falconer.
The top teams from all around the world will meet in Harbin, China in February 2010 to compete in the ACM ICPC World Finals. Only the top two teams from the Pacific Northwest region automatically move onto the world finals, however, the Vikes White currently has a chance for a wild card spot. The decisions about wild card spots should be made by the end of November after all regional competitions around the world finish.
For UVic ICPC activities, see http://www.csc.uvic.ca/icpc
Also check Sean’s Blog at http://seanfalconer.blogspot.com/
Congratulations to the UVic teams, students and coach!!! Cheers!