Programming team to train, compete in national competition

The Victors, one of four student programming teams sponsored by CSE, will be competing in the North American Championship, the premier programming competition in North America. The competition is conducted by the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

Earlier this year, the Victors competed in regional and then divisional competition in a quest to qualify for entry into the national championship competition. In divisional competition, the team fell just short of qualifying and it seemed that their season was over. Hope is not lost, however; In June, competition organizers offered the team a wildcard invitation to attend a training camp and compete in the national competition.

“This is a great opportunity for the students,” said Emeritus Assoc. Prof. Kevin Compton, who has coached U-M’s programming teams since 2001. “The combination of the training camp and the competition should be a defining experience for them.”

Local arrangements for the North American Programming Camp and the North American Championship event will be handled by the University of Central Florida and both the camp and competition will take place at Universal Resorts and Parks. The camp begins August 8 and will be followed immediately by the North American Championship.

In the event that the Victors place amongst the top teams in the national competition, they would advance to the ICPC World Finals, which draws on qualifying participants from over 1900 universities around the world.

The Victors team is excited to participate in the competition. Computer science undergraduate Claire Yang, one of the team members, said, “This is a wonderful opportunity for the team. I’m looking forward to getting to train with the best. Really proud of how far we came this year!”

Her teammate, computer science undergraduate Ramchandra Apte, added, “I’m glad that the competition will be in-person despite the pandemic. I don’t know whether we’ll make it to the World Finals, but it should be a fun experience either way.”

In addition to Yang and Apte, the team includes undergraduate computer science student Allen Li. Along with Compton, the team is coached by U-M alumnus and Fluid Equipment Development Company software engineer Dennis Matveyev (who has co-coached teams with Compton since 2009), and CSE graduate student Shang-En Huang. Matveyev and Huang will accompany the team to the camp and competition.