print preview

UPD team wins regional programming contest

Members of the UP Programming Guild are:
(front row, l-r) Gladys Mercado, Joan Karla
Comandante, Loraine Corese Edrosa, Misato Hirono,
Gladys Castañeda; (middle row) Conrad Miguel Gozalo,
Bonn Cherchez Uy, Alberto de Villa, Jose Plutarco
Bawagan, Joseph Jesneil Montalbo, John Eddie Ayson
and (top row) Jean Claude Edualino, Kevin Charles
Atienza, John Andreau Hernandez, Eric Tambasacan,
Luke Wicent Sy, Niel John Ortega, Sam Lee.

(ACM ICPC 2009)—A UPD team was named Champion in the 2009 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Asia-Manila Regional Competition held Oct. 22-23 at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City.

Solving 10 out of 10 problems, Team "Mga SOGO ni E.T." has three members namely Kevin Charles Atienza, third year 3 BS Computer Science (BSCSci); John Eddie Ayson, (3 BS Computer Engineering) and Marte Raphael Soliza, (5 BSCSci). They were coached by Eric Tambasacan.

This is the first time that a team from the Philippines has won an ACM ICPC Asia Regional competition and the third time a Philippine team advanced to an ACM ICPC World Finals.

ACM stands for Association for Computing Machineries, a prestigious international information technology organization. The ACM ICPC is a team competition consisting of three collegiate students and a coach. Each team is given a set of programming tasks (from 8 to 10 problems) to solve in five hours using a standard computer and programming languages such as C, C++, and Java.

Sponsored by IBM, the contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. It is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.

ACM holds the ICPC in selected regional sites in six continents each year and is participated in by thousands of teams from hundreds of universities worldwide. From selected regional sites, winning teams advance to the World Finals. The ACM ICPC World Finals will be held on Feb 1 - 6, 2010 in Harbin, China.

First runner-up was Team 'Passion' from Ho Chi Minh City University of Science, Vietnam. Members of the team were Pham Tuan Vu, rinh Tran Dang Khoa, and Le Do Hoan Nam, coached by Dang Nguyen Tien.

Second runner-up was Team 'NUSSOC1' from the National University of Singapore. Team members were Victor Loh Bo Huai, Adhiraj Somani, and Doon Hanh Hung. Their coach is Steven Halim.

Fifty-five teams from 23 schools in four countries participated in the ACM ICPC Asia Manila Regional competition. The top 10 ranked schools were: 1) UPD; 2) Ho Chi Minh City University of Science (Vietnam); 3) National University of Singapore (Singapore); 4. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; 5) University of Hong Kong; 6). Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines); 7. De La Salle University - Manila (Philippines); 8) Los Banos; 9). Ateneo de Naga University (Philippines); and 10) University of Immaculate Conception - Davao (Philippines).

In addition to the championship, the UPD team was named Best Team from the Philippines and Best Team for Metro Manila. 'SOGOng long ong moy poso', another UPD team, was named 2nd Best Team from the Philippines.

The ACM ICPC traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the UPE Computer Science Honor Society. The idea quickly gained popularity in the US and Canada as an innovative initiative to assist in the development of top students in the emerging field of computer science.

The contest evolved into a multi-tier competition with the first Finals held at the ACM Computer Science Conference in 1977. Headquartered at Baylor University since the 1980s, the contest has expanded into a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the World Finals.

Dr. Rafael Saldaña of Ateneo de Manila University was contest director, with members of the Computing Society of the Philippines sitting in the board of judges.