Students from St. Petersburg State University of Information Technology, Mechanices & Optics take the Gold at IBM-Sponsored ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.

Out of 112 universities from around the world, St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics & Optics emerges as winner of “World’s Smartest Trophy”

The Winning Team - Andrey Stankevich (Coach), Eugeny Kapun (Contestant), Mikhail Kever (Contestant), Niyaz Nigmatullin (Contestant)

The competition begins…

Once a team solves a problem a balloon is tied to their workstation as a visual indicator of who has solved the most problems. Each problem has a certain color balloon. There are also live scoreboards projected on the wall, however during the last hour of competition the scoreboards are frozen so contestants don’t know the exact standings!

Top 12 Finishers

The Ending

The reading of results had everyone on the edge of their seats. It was announced that the University of Warsaw had successfully solved 9 problems, moving them ahead of St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics & Optics however St. Petersburg still had one question to be resolved.

After moments of heart pounding anticipation the last problem was resolved and it turned out that St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics & Optics had also solved 9 questions and since their time was 337 minutes shorter they became the first place World Champions!

About the Contest

The contest challenges students to solve the most computer programming problems in the least amount of time. Demonstrating their elite problem solving and programming skills, St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics & Optics successfully solved nine problems in five hours. The World Champions will return home with “The World’s Smartest Trophy,” as well as awards and a guaranteed offer of employment or internship with IBM.

“This is a sport. Many teams go to camps specifically to train; it’s mental gymnastics.”
– Sal Vella of IBM

Problem Set of the 2012 ICPC Finals, click here.
Official Results of the 2012 ICPC Finals, click here.

 Coming soon..

We will have an interview with the winning team once they return home from Warsaw. Stay Posted!

The Palace of Culture and Science

You can make out the huge ICPC banner on the side of the Palace! (click for a larger photo).

The Palace is the tallest building in Poland. This is where the Opening Ceremonies were held last night – you can already tell they were amazing!

As they say, let the show begin!

Good luck to all the contestants!

The Congress Hall Auditorium before the Opening Ceremonies started.

Notice the ceiling.

Some teams waiting for the show.	Welcome Speeches.
The show begins. Check out the ceiling!	Puppets on the stage.
Poland!	Fighting on the ceiling.

We have recently arrived in Warsaw, Poland for the 2012 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.

Warsaw is a city with a lot of history. It was once mostly destroyed, but has since been rebuilt. Today Warsaw is a beautiful city with more than 1.7 million people.

Here is some background information on the contest as well as some great stats!

• List of Teams Competing: http://icpc.baylor.edu/public/report/teamsWF.icpc 
• ICPC Live Scoreboard: http://icpc.baylor.edu/scoreboard/

About the Contest

The contest pits teams of three university students against eight or more complex, real-world problems, with a grueling five-hour deadline. Huddled around a single computer, competitors race against the clock in a battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance.

Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and build software systems that solve the problems under the intense scrutiny of expert judges. For a well-versed computer science student, some of the problems require precision only. Others require a knowledge and understanding of advanced algorithms. Still others are simply too hard to solve – except, of course, for the world’s brightest problem-solvers.

Judging is relentlessly strict. The students are given a problem statement – not a requirements document. They are given an example of test data, but they do not have access to the judges’ test data and acceptance criteria.

Each incorrect solution submitted is assessed a time penalty. You don’t want to waste time when you are dealing with the supreme court of computing. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the winner.

This year, ICPC participation included more than 30,000 of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines from more than 2,200 universities from 85 countries on six continents.

 Competition Levels

The annual event is comprised of several levels of competition:

• Local Contests – Universities choose teams or hold local contests to select one or more teams to represent them at the next level of competition. Selection takes place from a field of more than 300,000 students in computing disciplines worldwide.
• Regional Contests (September to December 2011) – This year 25,016 contestants competed at more than 300 sites. Another 28,015 students competed in the ICPC and ICPC assisted contests combined.
• World Finals (May 14-18, 2012, Warsaw, Poland) – Hosted by the University of Warsaw, 112 world finalist teams will compete for awards, prizes and bragging rights. These teams represent the best of the great universities on six continents – the cream of the crop.

To learn more about the ICPC, please visit http://icpc.baylor.edu.