Results of 2018 International Collegiate Programming Contest (http://icpc.baylor.edu)

On April 19, a team of SNU students won a silver medal at the World Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) held in Peking University in Beijing, China.

ACM began hosting the ICPC in 1970 to cultivate talented minds in computer science and engineering fields. The largest educational and scientific computing society, ACM is dedicated to uniting students, researchers and professionals to spur dialogue, share resources, and address challenges the industry faces.

This year, the World Finals in Beijing consisted of a total of 140 teams, selected from local and regional ICPC competitions involving a total of 49,935 contestants from 3,089 universities in 111 countries on six continents; each team with the goal of earning a coveted invitation to Beijing.

During the contest, teams developed solutions for complex, real-world problems within a five-hour time limit. Despite the heated competition, the SNU team comprising of students Park Sung-gwan, Park Bum-soo, Park Sang-soo, and Professor Heon Young Yeom from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, ranked fifth overall, earning them a silver medal with three other teams.

Other Korean university teams include Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) who placed 14th and 31st, respectively. The top ranking went to Moscow State University.

Kyung Won-roh, director of software policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, recognized the performance of the SNU team and highlighted the ministry’s commitment to cultivating such talented minds. “By fostering such an innovative spirit, we can work together to find solutions to tomorrow’s challenges.”

Written by Frances Seowon Jin, SNU English Editor, seowonjin@snu.ac.kr Reviewed by Professor Travis Smith, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, tlsmith@snu.ac.kr