International Collegiate Programming Contest held in Dhaka
Jahir Ibna Rafiq, Lecturer, CSE, UAP
The most prestigious programming contest, ACM-ICPC will soon open door for grand finale at North Dakota, USA. Before the final contest, regional contests are held at various parts of the world. As a part of that, Dhaka hosted the regional contest for our south-east Asia region this year. Department of Computer Science and Engineering of University of Asia Pacific arranged the Regional Final of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) entitled as ‘2016 ACM-ICPC Asia Dhaka Regional Contest’, which took place on November 18-19, 2016 at UAP City Campus. The inauguration ceremony took place on November 18 has and the prize giving and closing ceremony place on November 19, 2016. Contest started at 10 A.M local time in Dhaka.
There are two rounds of contests, namely Online Preliminary Contest and Onsite Contest. A total of 1,665 teams were registered for the online preliminary contest. Among them 1,566 teams from 80 reputed universities participated on October 15, 2016. On the previous ACM-ICPC 2015 preliminary contest, 985 teams from 75 institutions had participated. This uprising trend (over 65%) reflects the growing interest about this event among young programmers of Bangladesh. This year all Girls’ Team participation was remarkable - a total of 129 teams comprising of all female members took part. From 1665 teams, 125 teams were selected, by dint of performance, for the onsite contest.
The team which was able to solve highest number of problems was BUET Rayo, they solved 10 out of 11 problems clinched the contest. BUET Rayo will directly qualify for the world finals at North Dakota. The other two runner-ups were BUET Omnitrix, DU_censored solving 9 and 8 problems respectively. They were closely followed by BUET FIX_IT_FELIX and Buet_BloodHound who solved 8 and 7 problems respectively. Prize money of 4 Lacs (4.00.000) were awarded to the contestants in different categories. Special gift and monetary cheque were given to district champions, university champions and special contestants.
The Judge panel were composed of Shahriar Manzoor, Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman, Md Mahbubul Hasan, Derek Kisman, Rujia Liu, Anindya Das, Md. Shiplu Hawlader, Hasnain Heickal, Monirul Hasan , Muhammad Ridowan, Kaysar Adullah, Shafaet Ashraf, Kazi Rakibul Hossain, Sayed Shahriar Manjur, Mahafuzur Rahman, Muhammad Hedayetul Islam, Md. Nafis Sadique and Sadia Nahreen.
Asia Regional contest director of ACM-ICPC Prof. Dr. C J Hwang was present to grace the occasion as Special Guest. Professor Dr. Jamilur Reza Choudhury, Vice Chancellor, UAP assumed the role of Contest director and Dr. Bilkis Jamal Ferdosi, Associate Professor & Head, CSE was the Program Coordinator. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, MP, was Chief Guest. Zunaid Ahmed Palak, MP, the Honorable State Minister, ICT Division, was present for the occasion. Qayum Reza Chowdhury, Chairman, Board of Trustees, UAP, patronized the event.
On this event more than 100 volunteers from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of University of Asia pacific made the event experience colorful and smooth. The main event sponsor was IBM and this Dhaka Regional Contest were also supported by Notre Dame, ULAB, UITS and UIU.
Programming contests serves as a great platform for young programmers. Competitions drive people do better and strive for higher quality. The more young students get involved in programming, the better it is for our software industry. Many of our previous contestants are not working in renowned companies like Google, Microsoft etc. We must encourage such event to bring out talents