On Thu, Sep 19, 2024, the UT Programming Team competed at the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) 2023-24 48th World Finals hosted by the Kazakhstan Competitive Programming Federation in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The competition consisted of teams from 124 regions (approx. 372 students) trying to solve 12 problems in 5 hrs. The first-place team, Peking University, solved 9 problems.
UT solved 3 problems and came in 109th out of 141, 15th place in North America.
Teams consist of three students. The students on the UTPC team were Aaryan Prakash ('25, B.S.), Caleb Hu ('25, B.S.), and Mark Wen ('25, B.S.). The coach was Trung Dang (current Ph.D.), and the faculty advisors were Prof. Etienne Vouga and Prof. Glenn Downing.
UT has been competing since 1997. UT went to the 2016-17 41st World Finals in South Dakota, the 2017-18 42nd World Finals in Beijing, China, the 2018-19 43rd World Finals in Porto, Portugal, the 2019-20 44th World Finals in Moscow, Russia (online), and the 2021-22 46th World Finals in Luxor, Egypt.
UT has seen marked improvement since creating a new elective, CS104c: Competitive Programming in 2014, taught by Prof. Vouga and Prof. Downing and the student officers of the UT Programming Club.
The ICPC traced its roots to 1970 when pioneers of the Alpha Chapter of the UPE Computer Science Honor Society hosted the first competition. The initiative spread quickly within the United States and Canada as an innovative program to increase students' ambition, problem-solving aptitude, and opportunities in computing.
Over time, the contest evolved into a multi-tier competition, with the first championship round conducted in 1977. Since then, the tournament has expanded into a worldwide collaboration of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the annual global championship, the ICPC World Finals.
The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is the premier global programming competition conducted by and for the world's universities. The ICPC is part of the ICPC Foundation.
The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. The tournament has raised the aspirations and performance of generations of the world's problem solvers in the computing sciences and engineering.