The ACM ICPC 2014. Let the Battle Start!

12:12, June 24, 2014

The International Collegiate Programming Contest has started

The official opening ceremony of the ACM ICPC took place in the concert hall “Cosmos” at 16:00 yesterday.

122 teams (1000 students-programmers from 41 countries) came to Ekaterinburg in order to participate in the finals of one of the most prestigious programming competitions the ACM ICPC 2014. The participants and the couches were accommodated in 7 hotels, this year the number of participants hits the record. 300 volunteers, which were trained by the UrFU Volunteer Center, met the participants and the airport and train station, they will help the participants through the whole period of their stay in Ekaterinburg.

There are special bus transfers between the hotels and main venues of the contest: the Palace of Sports and concert hall “Cosmoc”. All the 39 buses are marked with their own colours, which correspond to the hotels. In the morning the buses will go to the ICPC zone right after the breakfast, during the day and evening the participant will have change to choose time they want to be back to their hotel.

The meal is prepared by one of the restaurants, which is located near the ICPC venues. The menu includes dozens of different cuisines, because the students came from 41 countries.

The special surprise of the opening ceremony became the performance of Ural Youth Symphonic Orchestra, the unique orchestra-academy. The orchestra conducted by maestro Enkhe not only played the hymn of the ICPC, but also presented exclusive performance in collaboration with Alter Ego choir.

The welcoming speeches were delivered by the executive director of the ACM ICPC Bill Poucher, UrFU Rector Victor Koksharov, The First Vice-Rector of UrFU and the director of the ACMC ICPC 2014 in Ekaterinburg Dmitry Bugrov,  the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuyvashev, the head of Ekaterinburg Administration Aleksander Yakob.

During the ceremony there was a video-demonstration, which gave a general view of the sights of Ekaterinburg , Ural Federal University and IT education at UrFU. The participants were welcomed by robots.