Student Programming Contest Offers Career Edge: Collaboration is Key to Success
Introduction
As teams of university and college students from around the world congregated in Los Angeles March 22-25, for the 27th Annual World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, the common theme marking their efforts was, well, teamwork. The competition, sponsored by IBM, pitted some 70 teams against each other. Two hundred of the world's elite programmers tackled a semester's worth of computer programming in one afternoon in a battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance. They battled for the right to rank among the most gifted programmers in the world, an achievement that makes resumes sparkle and employers salivate. The evident rivalry among teams was tempered by a sense of adventure and camaraderie, as team members visited new places and networked with peers and professors.
IBM and its commitment to the future
"Collaboration is critical to success in this endeavor," said Gabriel Silberman, Program Director, IBM Centers for Advanced Studies. "The ACM-ICPC requires a different frame of mind from the average classroom experience. At IBM, we value this competitive experience for the discipline it offers students as they approach problem-solving, and for the positive analytical habits it fosters among competing teams," he added. A veteran of the last six final competitions, all of which were sponsored by IBM, Silberman said the local and regional contests leading up to the finals provide visibility to help build next generation technology and technology leaders. The contest also provides an opportunity for the world's universities to showcase their elite ranks of computer scientists. As an indication of its continuing commitment to education, IBM works closely with team coaches to provide technology and software to universities, and to learn more about how professors keep their curriculum current in today's rapidly changing technology environment.
The ACM-ICPC competition drew a record 23,000 participants from 68 countries over the past year. For the World Finals, each of the three-person teams was equipped with a PC, and given five hours to solve eight problems, in order demonstrate that their team embodied the best student software coding talent in the world.
Participation
Participation increased by close to 30 percent this year. A total of 3,850 university teams competed in preliminaries and regional contests around the world for a slot at the World Finals. "This is four times as many participants as the original competition, and it includes more schools and more countries than ever before, "noted Silberman.
Finals Event
The Finals event, which covered a four-day period, included presentations, demonstrations, and recreational activities in addition to the competition. Among the highlights was "Lord of the Rings" visual effects developer Milton Ngan from New Zealand's Weta Digital, Ltd., who works on IBM Linux Intellistations. His presentation emphasized the global need for gifted students to pursue degrees in math, science and engineering, and the importance of software innovations for both global economic growth and film industry development. Among the IBM Research demos featured was the IBM InfoScope, a prototype of a handheld device equipped with a digital camera. It enables competitors to take snapshots of text in several languages and translate the image to another language in a matter of seconds. Also demonstrated were a wireless application built for vending machines and a Linux watch. Participants also had leisure time to visit the popular Cybercafe, which offered networking and social opportunities during the event.
Conclusion
The winning team for the event was Warsaw University. The ACM-ICPC World Finals champions won prizes, scholarships and bragging rights to the "world's smartest trophy." IBM derived this concept of "the world's smartest trophy" from the fact that this is not a typical trophy that rewards a competitor for their physical prowess, as normal trophies are, but instead it is a reward for the power of the brain. IBM also wanted to tie it into the March Madness event that was taking place at roughly the same time. For more information on the ACM-ICPC, click on http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/.
Virginia Gold (v_gold@hq.acm.org) is currently the public relations coordinator for ACM. Before joining the team at ACM in 2001, she was the public relations director for WNYC radio in New York. She also held various positions in public relations and media relations for several divisions of AT&T, including Bell Labs. In 1988, she was a Congressional Fellow for the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on International Scientific Cooperation. Virginia received a BA in Political Science from Chatham College and an MA in Political Science from Syracuse University.