University of Arizona Hosts ICPC Rocky Mountain Regional Contest
Last month, the University of Arizona proudly resumed its role as a regional site for the prestigious International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). This marked the first time since 2019 that the UA hosted an ICPC regional site, following a request from students in October.
The ICPC, the world’s oldest and largest programming competition, challenges university teams to solve complex real-world algorithmic problems under intense time constraints. The competition fosters creativity, collaboration, and innovation while testing participants' ability to perform under pressure.
This year’s Rocky Mountain Regional Contest spanned five sites across a vast area from Canada to Arizona and New Mexico. The UA site was organized by Associate Professor of Practice Diana Diazh, Assistant Professor Chicheng Zhang, and lab manager Eric Collins. To support the participants, Prof. Zhang hosted a preparatory meeting to help the teams gear up for the contest.
UA’s Department of Computer Science fielded three teams, comprised of a total of seven students. UA Team 2 (Mark Nguyen and Thompson Nguyen) and Team 3 (Aditya Pise and Aditya Jadhav) each solved three of the thirteen challenging problems, while Team 1 (James Lee, Cumhur Aygar, and Kiran Smelser) solved two. A fourth team from Arizona State University also traveled from Tempe to participate. For full results and standings from the 2024 Rocky Mountain Regional Contest, visit the ICPC standings page.
The department is looking forward to continuing to support students in this competition moving forward.