COMP UG Students Excel at The 2023 ICPC Asia-East Continent Final Contest

The 2023 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Asia-East Continent (EC) Final powered by Huawei was held from 12 to 14 January 2024. Our talented undergraduate students, including XU Le (Year 3), Frank XIANG (Year 1), and SUN Hansong (Year 1), formed a team and achieved a remarkable feat by securing the bronze medal in the contest. Additionally, our Year 3 student, CHEN Junru, emerged victorious in the subsequent individual competition, claiming the prestigious first prize among over 794 final participants by ranking as one of the top 10 contestants. In recognition of his outstanding achievement, he was awarded a cash prize of RMB 10,000.

The ICPC Asia EC Final was an intensive regional contest held within the broader framework of the ICPC. It served as a crucial qualifying round for university teams from the East Asian region to advance to the ICPC World Finals. The contest attracted teams from top universities across the EA region and gathered a diverse mix of participants from various cultural and educational backgrounds. During the contest, participating teams were presented with algorithmic problems and given a fixed time frame of 5 hours to showcase their problem-solving ability by using specific programming languages such as C++, and they also needed to strategise on dividing tasks based on individual strengths and coordinating their efforts. Teams were primarily ranked based on the number of problems solved, with tiebreakers determined by the total time taken to solve the problems, along with penalties for incorrect submissions.

While XU Le, Frank XIANG, and SUN Hansong expressed their happiness at being recognised, they also believed they could achieve a higher ranking at the contest if they performed at their usual level. They remain determined to improve their skills and aim for even better results in future competitions.