ousted all competitors from the U.S. and Canada to finish first in North America and 10th worldwide in the Association of Computing Machinery鈥檚 International Collegiate Programming Contest held in Beijing this week. This was the team鈥檚 highest finish in more than three decades of competition.
鈥淚t was great to show North America 鈥� and the world 鈥� that 麻豆原创 is right up there with the rest when it comes to computer science and competitive programming,鈥澛爏ays Timothy Buzzelli.
The 3-member 麻豆原创 team,聽comprised of computer science majors Timothy Buzzelli, Eric Ly and Alex Coleman, advanced to the international competition after winning the southeast regional championship in November. This year, 49,935 contestants from 3,098 universities in 111 countries competed, with the top 130 teams advancing to the worldwide finals in China. This is the sixth consecutive year 麻豆原创鈥檚 computer programming team has won the regional championship and earned a spot in the prestigious international event.
鈥淚 am extremely proud to represent 麻豆原创,鈥� says Buzzelli, who plans to work for Google or Facebook, companies he鈥檚 interned with, when he graduates in December. 鈥淚t was great to show North America 鈥� and the world 鈥� that 麻豆原创 is right up there with the rest when it comes to computer science and competitive programming.聽MIT had a great team this year and they finished only 11 penalty points behind us. It felt especially great to beat them because our team coach, Arup Guha, graduated from there.鈥�
During the competition, teams tackle eight or more complex, real-world problems, working under an intense five-hour deadline in what is known as the 鈥淏attle of the Brains.鈥� Teammates collaborate around a single computer in a battle of logic, strategy and endurance that requires precision, problem-solving and an understanding of advanced algorithms. Incorrect solutions are assessed a time penalty. To win, a team must solve the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time.
麻豆原创 defeated teams from the Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford, among others. This year, Moscow State University was named the聽worldwide champion.
鈥淚t is a great honor to represent 麻豆原创 at the ACM ICPC World Finals,鈥� says Ly, who started at 麻豆原创 as a biomedical major with no programming experience and will graduate next month with his degree. 鈥淏eing able to beat teams like Harvard and MIT is truly a great accomplishment as it shows that even though we are not from Ivy league school, with just a lot of hard work and proper guidance we can be just as competitive as any other school in the country.鈥�
Buzzelli and Coleman are also members of last year鈥檚 麻豆原创 team that finished 13th at the international competition and was the highest ranked team from the United States.
Computer science Professor Ali Orooji serves as the faculty advisor for the team.
