RAPID CITY, S.D., May 24,
2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A trio of students from St. Petersburg University of IT, Mechanics and
Optics (ITMO) have emerged as World Champions of the
41st Annual ACM International Collegiate Programming
Contest (ICPC) World Finals sponsored by IBM (NYSE: IBM). The
contest, hosted in Rapid City by
Excellence in Computer Programming, brought together the next
generation of developers from 133 universities around the world,
where they competed on the most elite programming level.
Headquartered at Baylor University and known as the "Battle
of the Brains," the world's oldest and most prestigious programming
competition challenged teams, each comprised of three students, to
solve a series of complex real-world problems in just five hours.
Demonstrating the elite talent of its team members, St. Petersburg
ITMO University successfully solved 10 problems to earn the
victory.
"IBM values this opportunity to assemble the brightest students
from the world's leading universities and share with them the
technology trends that will shape the future and allow them to
build new innovations fueled by cloud, cognitive and more," said
Jonas Jacobi, Vice President, IBM
Developer Advocacy, Worldwide. "These students are the future
leaders of our industry and we are committed to fostering their
development with these critical technologies as they prepare to
enter the global workforce."
IBM has been rapidly expanding breakthrough technologies for
cloud and cognitive computing that are easily accessed by
developers, including quantum computing, blockchain and more. This
ready foundation of transformative tools equips programmers,
designers and coders with the potential to build revolutionary
applications across a multitude of industries.
"Competing at the ACM-ICPC is an experience that will impact
these students throughout their lives," said Dr. Bill Poucher, ICPC Executive Director and
Baylor University Professor. "I am
excited to see what these students will do with the knowledge they
gained and the dauntless problem solving abilities they showcased
at World Finals as they continue their academic and professional
pursuits."
University of Warsaw, Seoul
National University and St. Petersburg
State University finished the competition in second, third, and
fourth places, all earning coveted gold medals. The regional
champions are:
- Africa and the Middle East: German University in Cairo
- Asia: Seoul National University
- Europe: St. Petersburg ITMO
University
- Latin America: Universidad de
La Habana
- North America: University of Waterloo
- South Pacific: University of New South
Wales
The top twelve teams received medals:
- Gold Medalists (4): St. Petersburg ITMO University, University
of Warsaw, Seoul National University, St. Petersburg State
University
- Silver Medalists (4): Moscow Institute of Physics &
Technology, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan
University
- Bronze Medalists (4): KAIST, Ural
Federal University, KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, The
University of Tokyo
The 133 World Finalists emerged from local and regional
ICPC competitions this past fall. Initially, selection took place
from a field of more than 300,000 students in computing disciplines
worldwide. A record number of students advanced to the regional
level, as 46,381 contestants from 2,948 universities in 103
countries on six continents competed at more than 480 sites, all
with the goal of earning one of the coveted invitations to
South Dakota.
In addition to competing in the World Finals, students were
exposed to the latest technologies from IBM through speakers and
interactive, on-site demos of IBM's Cloud Platform. The combination
of IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson, delivered through the IBM Cloud with
extensive API support, allows developers to rapidly build cognitive
applications which can run in secure, hybrid cloud
environments.
About the ACM-ICPC
Headquartered at Baylor University, the ACM-ICPC is a global
competition among the world's university students, nurturing new
generations of talent in the science and art of information
technology. For more information about the ACM-ICPC, including
downloadable high resolution photographs and videos, visit ICPC
headquarters and ICPCNews. Additional information can be found
via the "Battle of the Brains" podcast series. Follow the
contest on Twitter @ICPCNews and #ICPC2017.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, with more than
100,000 members, is the world's largest educational and scientific
computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers,
professionals, and students to inspire dialogue, share resources
and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing
profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion
of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence.
ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing
opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and
professional networking. For more information, see www.acm.org.
About IBM
IBM is a globally integrated technology and consulting company.
With operations in more than 170 countries, IBM attracts and
retains some of the world's most talented people to help solve
problems and provide an edge for businesses, governments and
non-profits. Innovation is at the core of IBM's strategy. The
company develops and sells software and systems hardware and a
broad range of infrastructure, focusing on growth initiatives such
as cognitive computing, cloud computing, big data and analytics,
mobile, social business and security. For more information, visit
www.ibm.com.
About Excellence in Computer Programming (ECP)
The ECP champions a culture of excellence by integrating the
capabilities of the host partners of South Dakota. Host partners who are the
leaders of industry and government are providing the personnel and
financial resources for the 2017 World Finals. Rapid City is the home of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
(SDSMT), the engineering and science research university of South Dakota. SDSMT is a research
partner of the 8000-foot-deep Sanford Underground Research Facility
(SURF), the world's newest laboratory for the study of neutrinos
and dark matter which is located in Lead,
South Dakota. ECP is a non-profit corporation dedicated to
providing an environment in which people of all ages and ability
levels can develop their coding expertise through individualized
study, extracurricular activities, and participation in competitive
programming.
Media Contact – North
America:
Courtney Thomas, Tierney
Communications
+1 (203) 952-2876
cthomas@tierneyagency.com
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/st-petersburg-university-of-it-mechanics-and-optics-wins-ibm-sponsored-international-collegiate-programming-contest-300463609.html
SOURCE IBM