UT Dallas Computer Programming Team Headed to World Finals in Tokyo

After taking first place in a regional event for one of the world’s most prestigious computer programming competitions, The University of Texas at Dallas’ team has received an invitation to participate in the world finals in Tokyo next March.

The UT Dallas Meteors bested 63 other teams from Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas to win the South Central U.S. regional event of the IBM-sponsored 31st Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest (http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/) earlier this month. The University of Texas at Austin came in second and could make it into the finals as a wild card, but that will be decided later.

The computer programming contest gives three-person teams five hours to solve eight real-world problems, such as solving crossword puzzles with up to 100 words, using only their computer’s tools and their programming skills.  (To give one a try, visit http://acm2006.cct.lsu.edu/problems/.)

The UT Dallas team, coached by Dr. Ivor Page, associate professor of computer science, is made up of returning team members and Plano East Senior High School grads Michelle Berger and Matthew Dempsky and Jack Lindamood, a graduate of the School of Science and Engineering at Dallas’s Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center.

UT Dallas has a history of performing well in the regional event. The team took fourth place in 2001, 13th in 2002, third in 2003, 19th in 2004 and second last year.