Thursday, November 15, 2018
Four teams of programmers from the University of Waterloo swept the top spots at an Association for Computing Machinery regional International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC) over the weekend.
The
teams
–
each
comprised
of
three
undergraduate
students
from
the
university’s
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
this
spring."
Coached
by
Ondrej
Lhotak
and
Troy
Vasiga,
faculty
members
in
the
David
R.
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science,
and
sponsored
by
Wish,
Waterloo’s
teams
were
selected
in
preliminary
competitions
open
to
students
from
all
faculties
earlier
in
the
fall.
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Matthew
Grant 226-929-7627 | @uwaterloonews | uwaterloo.ca/news |