Virginia Tech ACM ICPCProgramming Team

icpc.cs.vt.edu

Virginia TechCoach: Dr. Godmar Back

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is the premiere global programming competition conducted by and for the world’s universities. The competition operates under the auspices of ACM, is sponsored by IBM, and is headquartered at Baylor University. For nearly four decades, the ICPC has grown to be a game-changing global competitive educational program that has raised aspirations and performance of generations of the world’s problem solvers in the computing sciences and engineering.

Teams of three students represent their universities in multiple levels of regional competition. Volunteer coaches prepare their teams with intense training and instruction in algorithms, programming, and teamwork strategy. Several ICPC universities and ICPC volunteers provide online judging systems to all free of charge. Top teams from regional competitions advance to the final round. This year’s regional competitions advanced 128 teams to the World Championship round - the 2015 ACM-ICPC World Finals sponsored by IBM and hosted by 5 Moroccan Universities – which will be conducted on May 21 2015 at the Palmeraie Resort in Marrakech, Morocco.

ICPC FACTS (2015)

North American Regions

• 188 Teams competed last year in Midatlantic [Google Map]; 3 advanced to world finals

• Only 25 Teams total participate from North America at World Finals• To be eligible, must have no more than 5 years of post-K12 ed

MidatlanticRegion

2014

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Our Team: 2013 Midatlantic Regionals

Our Team: 2014 Midatlantic Regionals

More information• Allowed programming languages: Java, C, C++

• Our team uses mostly Java

• Problems typically require hands-on knowledge in these areas:• Searching: DFS, BFS, binary/ternary searches, A*, Backtracking• Data Structures• Greedy algorithms• Graph/Network algorithms (shortest path, minimum spanning tree,

max-flow, matchings, Eulerian & Hamiltonian, TSP)• Math/number theory & combinatorics; some calculus• Dynamic Programming• Geometry (intersections, hulls, 2D vector operations, sometimes 3D)

• Problems require astute knowledge of complexity theory, analysis of proposed solution + coding skills to implement it within minutes

Our Team Handbook

Expectations• Compete to win!• Starting now: get involved on mailing list!• From start of semester until November 1st or 8th

• Participate in mini-tryout (think: Google CodeJam qualifier)• Intense preparation for regionals.• 150 min of class time (likely MW 5:30-6:45pm)• Participate in (on average) one 5h practice competition per week,

including some Sa/Su. ACM provides pizza.• Participation in North American Qualifier (which functions as local

qualifier for our teams)• Early October: Coach selects and puts together ~6 teams from eligible

participants• After regionals, will meet only for class & holiday competition

• Not required, but recommended: participation in CodeJam, TopCoder, CodeForces, etc.

Why should I be participating• Because you enjoy the intellectual challenge• To better prepare for job & internship interviews• Course-work related: successful participants start early

(freshmen or sophomores), and will often know material already before it’s covered in their classes (if it’s covered at all)• Direct class credit/enrollment:

• Possible to count as CS 2104 (if you haven’t taken it)• Or CS 2974/CS 4974 Independent Study• Usual department rules wrt course load & GPA apply – but you can

participate without official enrollment too.

• Please sign up/participate only if you intend to invest the required time.

Virginia HighSchool Programming Competition

Companies former team members (2010-2014) ended up at

Contact

• Coach: Dr. Back (godmar@gmail.com)• https://icpc.cs.vt.edu/

Join us at our End of Semester Meeting:

Tuesday May 5th 20155:30pm McBryde 110