Four teams of programmers from the University of Waterloo swept the top spots at an Association for Computing Machinery regional International Collegiate Programming Competition over the weekend.
The teams — each comprised of three undergraduate students from the Faculty of Mathematics — secured first through fourth place, Waterloo’s best-ever result at the annual competition. The field included 130 other teams from the East Central North America region; universities from across Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan entered teams in the competition that challenges students to solve ten programming problems within a five-hour time limit.
The first-place team — Waterloo Black — solved nine of the ten problems, and earned the right to compete against 127 of the top teams from universities around the world at the ICPC World Finals in Portugal. The team, comprised of Joakim Blikstad, Jason Yuen and Sean Purcell, will try to become the third Waterloo team to win first place at the World Finals, which have been held annually since 1977.
“The ICPC requires not only virtuoso programming skill, problem experience and speed — it also relies heavily on teamwork. Each of our teams impressed, not only in the number of the problems they solved, but also in finding the first solutions,” said Stephen M. Watt, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics at Waterloo. “Our students faced stiff competition from across our region. We congratulate all four teams on their impressive performance, and look forward to watching the Waterloo Black team compete at the world finals in Porto, Portugal this spring.”
“For many years, Waterloo teams have performed remarkably well at the ACM programming competitions, but this year’s results are particularly astonishing,” said Dan Brown, Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “I’m proud of all our students’ accomplishments and grateful to our colleagues Ondřej Lhoták and Troy Vasiga, who have been coaching the teams to so many successful outcomes. Good luck in Portugal!”
Sponsored by Wish, Waterloo’s teams were selected in preliminary competitions open to students from all faculties earlier in the fall.
2018 East Central North America Regional Contest • Top team members
First place, solving nine problems
Waterloo Black: Joakim Blikstad (3A CS/CO), Jason Yuen (2A CS), Sean Purcell (3B Soft Eng)
L to R: Competition organizer Professor Ziad Kobti, Professor Troy Vasiga, Jason Yuen, Sean Purcell, Joakim Blikstad, Professor Ondřej Lhoták
Second place, solving nine problems
Waterloo Red: Reyno Tilikayen (4B CS/CO), Timothy Li (3A CS), Anzo Teh (3B CS)
L to R: Competition organizer Professor Ziad Kobti, Professor Troy Vasiga, Anzo Teh, Timothy Li, Reyno Tilikayen, Professor Ondřej Lhoták
Third place solving eight problems
Waterloo Gold: Joey Yu (1A CS), Albert Gevorgyan (3A Pure Math with CO/Stats minor), Josh Jung (3A Math Phys)
L to R: Competition organizer Professor Ziad Kobti, Professor Troy Vasiga, Joey Yu, Josh Jung, Albert Gevorgyan, Professor Ondřej Lhoták
Fourth place, solving eight problems
Waterloo White: Peter Ralbovsky (2A CS), Kai Sun (1A CS), Felix Bauckholt (4B Pure Math)
L to R: Competition organizer Professor Ziad Kobti, Professor Troy Vasiga, Peter Ralbovsky, Kai Sun, Professor Ondřej Lhoták (Felix Bauckholt was unavailable for the photo)
2018 East Central North America Regional Contest • Top 10 teams
Table from ecna18.kattis.com/standings
