MIT places fifth in global programming competition

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 6, 2004 by Ronald Roach

POLAND

Though placing first among teams from North America, students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took frith place overall in the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), which is sponsored by IBM. As competition sponsors, IBM has sought to increase the participation of historically Black institutions to qualify for the international competition (see Black Issues, January 29).

A student team from St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics in St. Petersburg, Russia, took top honors in the global contest. During the contest rounds, the competition has challenged students to tackle a semester's worth of computer programming in one morning in a battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance, according to officials. The ACM-ICPC World Finals champions walk away with prizes and scholarships.

KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus; and Perm State University, Perm, Russia finished the competition in second, third and fourth places, respectively, and all won gold medals. The three-person teams won medals based on the number of problems they solved in the shortest time during the five-hour competition.

Other regional champions in addition to MIT include: St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, St. Petersburg, Russia (Europe); University of Capetown, Capetown, South Africa (Africa and the Middle East); Universidad de Palermo, Palermo, Argentina (Latin America); National Taiwan University, Taiwan (Asia); and University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia (South Pacific).