Two teams from the University of Waterloo, each with a triad of exceptional programmers, competed virtually on April 22, 2021 at the East Division of the 2021 International Collegiate Programming Contest’s North America Division Championships.
Waterloo Black, consisting of Ildar Gainullin (1B computer science), Jason Yuen (4B computer science) and Wesley Leung (4A software engineering), placed second, solving 11 out of 13 problems. Waterloo Red, consisting of William Li, George Chen and Andrew Qi Tang — all 1B computer science students — finished sixth, solving 9 out of 13 problems.
2021 ICPC North America Division Championships, East Division • Top 10 teams
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.
Waterloo teams were coached by Cheriton School of Computer Science Professors Ondřej Lhoták and Troy Vasiga, and sponsored by Jane Street, an international firm that trades a wide range of financial products.
“Each year our students face strong competition from teams fielded by universities across the eastern region of North America,” said Professor Lhoták. “We’re very impressed by Waterloo Black’s solid second-place win, and on Waterloo Red’s impressive sixth-place showing, especially as the team consists entirely of first-year computer science students.”
“Ondřej and I are tremendously proud and impressed by how well our teams ranked in this year’s gruelling competition against 41 teams in total,” said Professor Vasiga.
“We’re now prepping Waterloo Black for the North America Championships. Given their strong showing last Thursday and earlier at the East Central North America International Collegiate Programming Contest, we’re hopeful they will place highly at the North America Championship held in early August 2021 and go on to compete in the ICPC World Finals in 2022.”
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 111 countries compete in regional competitions to earn a spot at the world finals.
The ICPC regional contests begin with local competitions among classmates to determine who will represent their university. Success at one level leads to an invitation to the next. Each region progresses differently, but the end result is the same — the best teams advance. The final regional contest determines the teams advancing to the world finals.
Waterloo’s proud history at the International Collegiate Programming Contest
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.
Let’s do it again this year!