UT Dallas Debuts Third Overall Among U.S. Competitors At Tokyo Computer Programming Competition

In their first world-level competition, a UT Dallas team of three computer science students finished 14th in a field of 88, putting UT Dallas with MIT and Cal  Tech as the only U.S. universities to rank in the top 20 at the World Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest in Tokyo.

Ivor Page, an associate professor at UT Dallas, coached the team, made up of Jack Lindamood, a graduate student and Michelle (Shelly) Berger and Matthew Dempsky, both undergraduates. All are students in the university’s Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.  The competition took place March 12-16.

“This is truly an outstanding result for UT Dallas, especially for our first appearance at the world finals,” Page said.  “I’m so proud of the team and the way that they conducted themselves.  They worked hard to prepare for the contest.  What a great example for our students!”

“In our role as the ‘innovator’s innovator,’ we’re proud to give talented students from all over the world the opportunity to come together in the spirit of competition and demonstrate the programming and problem solving skills employers are demanding around the globe,” said Doug Heintzman, a director of strategy at IBM Software Group and sponsorship executive of the International Collegiate Programming Contest.  “These students will be responsible for the next great technological advancements that will profoundly impact science, business and society.”

The UT Dallas team solved five problems in the allotted time.  The winning team, from Warsaw University, solved eight.  MIT came in fourth and Cal Tech 12th.

In all, 88 teams from across the world participated in the event, where they attempted to solve 10 computer programming problems within five hours.

One of this year’s problems involved blood typing.  Specifically, given the A-B-O blood types and Rh factors of two parents, or one parent and its child, students were asked to compute a set of all possible blood types of the third family member.  The programs had to achieve completely correct answers to multiple versions of each problem and the program had to complete within strict time limits.

Official results and photos from the competition are available at http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/.

About UT Dallas

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 14,500 students.  The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores.  The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs.  For additional information about UT Dallas, please visit the university’s website at www.utdallas.edu.