Team "Watch.C" Makes Great Efforts at ACM-ICPC

A photo with executives of the contest

The &wuot;Watch.c," the team which participated in for the first time from the University of Aizu, advanced to the ACM-ICPC world finals (April 21, 2009, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden), finished in the tie in the 49th place at the contest.
The team consisted of 3 contestants, Mr. Takashi Tayama, Mr. Nobuyuki Wachi, both in the 4th year of the Undergraduate School, Mr. Yuki Hirano in the 3rd year of the Undergraduate School, and a coach, Assistant Lecturer Yutaka Watanobe of the Database Systems Laboratory. The team arrived in Stockholm on April 18 to attend the World Finals and its official events. They enjoyed exchanging with participants from other countries at the opening ceremony, receptions, excursions to the city and various programs provided during the period. They also participated in the orientation and the practice contest to prepare for the Finals. 100 teams representing the 6 regions, Africa and the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and South Pacific, competed in the Finals, and "Watch.c" showed great achievements in an atmosphere of tension to reach the top 50.
Coach Watanobe said, "It was great that the team was ranked in the top 50 among many other world-famous universities as we set a goal to reach the top 50 before the Finals, but we also realized a difference in level of skills from higher-ranking teams and found issues for our next challenge." However, he was proud of his students for advancing to the Finals, qualifying the Asia Regionals in the 2nd place among Japanese universities. He expressed his expect for to the students, "I would like them to utilize the experience they gained through the contest, techniques and knowledge they acquired through the daily practice for their research and jobs in the future." Coach Watanobe also showed his goal to make more efforts to teach students and develop educational tools as a world finalist university."
ACM-ICPC is the contest to compete the ability to perform the programming accuracy and its speed. It is known as the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world. 7,109 representing 1,838 universities from 88 countries participated in the 6 regional contests and 100 out of all the teams went to the World Finals this year. St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and Optics, Russia, won the championship and Tsinghua University, China, became the Asian champion.