Organization : ACM ICPC
Competition Name : ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest
Applicable For : UCT Students & Students In Southern Africa
Competition Deadline : 8 October 2016.
Website : http://acm.cs.uct.ac.za/
ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest
The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is a multitier, team-based, programming competition.
** The contest involves a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM ICPC World Finals.
** Participation has grown to over 40 000 of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines at almost 2000 universities from over 80 countries on six continents.
** The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure.
Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.
Schedule :
** The 2016 regional will be held on Saturday 15 October.
** A draft schedule is available here (the final version will be similar to it).
Register :
Note :
** The registration deadline is 8 October 2016.
** UCT students can register by contacting the Competitions Coordinator (Dr. M. Keet), while other students in Southern Africa should visit the regional website for details on how to register.
** Please note that there are strict eligibility rules (details are on the ICPC rules page).
** If you are unsure about your eligibility please email the Competitions Coordinator.
** Generally, if you have been studying in the field of Computer Science or a similar field (e.g. Mathematics) for less than 5 full years, we are usually able to make a successful petition.
Communication :
** There was an information session introducing the programme on 29 July 2016, at 1pm in LT 302. Read the slides for this year’s information.
Training sessions for 2016 will be in room LT303 in the Computer Science building, from 10:00-16:00, on the following dates (subject to change) :
** Aug 6 — slides (solving problems, sample problems)
** Aug 13 — slides (problem solving paradigms, strings)
** Aug 27 — slides (graphs, data structures)
** Sept 10 — slides (dynamic programming)
** Sept 17 — slides TBA (computational geometry, contest practice)
** Oct 1 — slides TBA
** Announcements used to be made on the contests mailing list, but have been moved to the contest vula that also has some more resources
** To contact the UCT organisers, use contest-admins AT algorithm.cs.uct.ac.za or (for better response times) the competitions coordinator at UCT (Dr. Maria Keet).
Training :
** You don’t just rock up on the day of the ACM and expect to win.
** Those that have excelled and represented UCT at the international level earned their place through rigorous training.
** As we gain momentum so there become more and more top students ready to jump at the opportunity of helping others.
** There is a training program that is run by the coordinator and previous contestants.
** It consists of teams gathering in the labs to tackle problems together, covering different problem solving paradigms and classes of algorithms adn data structures.
** There may also be pizza involved.
** To find out when training sessions are happening, subscribe to the communication channels above.
** If you want to do additional training on your own (highly recommended if you’re serious about winning), then the ICPC live archive and the UVa online judge are very good resources for trying out problems from other regions, or start with codeforces.
Note :
** we will be using previous South African regional problems for the organised training, so it’s best if you avoid looking at those problems on your own.
Basic Requirements :
** A student must be willing and able to compete in the World Finals.
** A student must be enrolled in a degree program at the sponsoring institution with at least a half-time load.
** This rule is not to be construed as disqualifying co-op students, exchange students, students serving internships, or extramural students.
** A student may compete for only one institution during a contest year.
** A student who has competed in two World Finals is NOT eligible to compete.
** A student who has competed in five Regional Contests is NOT eligible to compete.
Period of Eligibility :
** A student who meets the Basic Requirements and FIRST began post-secondary studies in 2012 or later is eligible to compete.
** A student who meets the Basic Requirements and was born in 1993 or later is eligible to compete.
Extending the Period of Eligibility :
** A coach may petition the ICPC Eligibility Committee to extend the Period of Eligibility for a student whose full-time studies have been interrupted or extended. This includes military or civilian service, illness, work/studies, or personal reasons.
** The coach must demonstrate that such an extension would not provide an unfair advantage to the team.
** A petition will be approved routinely if the student meets the Basic Requirements and has not completed more than the equivalent of eight semesters of full-time study as of the date of the regional contest.
** To make such a request, the coach must petition the ICPC Eligibility Committee at least three weeks before the regional contest. The ICPC Eligibility Committee will render a decision within five days.**