The top computer programming students across Canada and the United States competed in the prestigious North America Championship round of the 2022 International Collegiate Programming Contest hosted by the University of Central Florida from May 26–31, 2022.
A triad of programming aficionados from the Cheriton School of Computer Science came in second within the east division and fourth overall in the gruelling five-hour competition, solving seven of the North America Championship’s 13 algorithmic programming problems.
Composed of Chris Trevisan, a first-year CS student, Wen Yuen Pang, a second-year CS student, and Marian Dietz, a CS master’s student, Waterloo’s team was pitted against 49 top teams across universities in North America as they raced to solve the contest’s problems. With their fourth-place win, the team qualifies to compete at the ICPC World Finals to be held in Egypt in 2023. The Waterloo team also received a $3,000 USD cash prize.
L to R: Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor and team coach Troy Vasiga, Chris Trevisan, Wen Yuen Pang, and Marian Dietz. Photo credit: ICPC NAC 2022.
Waterloo’s team was coached by Cheriton School of Computer Science Professors Troy Vasiga and Ondřej Lhoták, and sponsored by Jane Street, an international firm that trades a wide range of financial products.
“Not only am I proud of how Chris, Wen and Marian performed, but I am also delighted how well they represented Waterloo in their interactions with other competitors and coaches,” said Professor Vasiga. “The entire team is especially grateful for Jane Street’s generous sponsorship, which enabled their training and travel to Florida to compete in the North America Championship.”
2022
ICPC
North
America
Championship
round
•
Top
10
teams
The
top
five
teams
at
the
North
America
Championship
round
of
the
2022
International
Collegiate
Programming
Contest were
MIT,
Swarthmore
College,
University
of
Wisconsin–Madison,
University
of
Waterloo,
and
Carnegie
Mellon
University.
Waterloo’s
team
was
the
only
one
from
a
Canadian
university
in
the
top
ten.
Dark
green
indicates
the
team
was
first
to
solve
the
problem,
light
green
indicates
the
team
solved
the
problem,
and
orange
indicates
that
the
problem
was
attempted.
About
the
International
Collegiate
Programming
Contest
The
International
Collegiate
Programming
Contest
is
the
oldest,
largest
and
most
prestigious
university-level
algorithmic
programming
contest
in
the
world.
Each
year,
more
than
50,000
students
from
more
than
3,000
universities
across
100+
countries
square
off
in
contests
around
the
globe
to
earn
a
spot
at
the
ICPC
World
Finals.
Volunteer
coaches
prepare
their
teams
with
intense
training
and
instruction
in
algorithms,
programming
and
teamwork
strategy.
Huddled around a single computer, teams of three attempt to solve complex real-world problems within a gruelling five-hour deadline. Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds and build software systems to solve them.
In ICPC competitions, teams of three students represent their university in multiple levels of regional competition. Success at one level leads to an invitation to the next. Each region progresses differently, but the result is the same — the best teams advance. The final regional contest determines the teams advancing to the World Finals.
Waterloo
at
the
International
Collegiate
Programming
Contests
Did
you
know
that
the
University
of
Waterloo
is
the
only
Canadian
university
to
win
the
International
Collegiate
Programming
Competition
World
Finals,
taking
the
prized
title
in
1994
and
again
in
1999?