The best programmers from all over the world will gather at Ural Federal University

23:25, December 10, 2012

The capital of Urals and UrFU are ready to host the ACM-ICPC World Finals

This July, Ural Federal University, government of Sverdlovsk region and the administration of Ekaterinburg have agreed on cooperation to promote Ekaterinburg’s bid to host the ACM-ICPC World Finals. The agreement was signed by UrFU Rector Viktor Koksharov, the Governor of Sverdlovsk region Evgeny Kuyvashev and the Head of the City Administration of Ekaterinburg Alexander Yakob.

UrFU’s bid to host the contest was first presented by Rector Viktor Koksharov at the ACM-ICPC World Finals 2012 in Warsaw.

At the meeting in December the chances of Ekaterinburg were discussed again on the occasion of “Orange” team’s recent victory: the students from the UrFU Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences got the third place in the number of the problems solved at the semi-finals held in St.Petersburg.

The final round of the contest, which the UrFU team has won the right to participate in, will be held in Russia for the first time - in St.Petersburg.

“We have a great opportunity to benefit from St.Petersburg’s experience”, said the UrFU First Vice-Rector Dmitry Bugrov. “Besides, it is crucial that our students have got the third place – it will become an additional argument in favour of Ekaterinburg being chosen as the venue for the ACM-ICPC World Finals 2016”.

“Ekaterinburg is ready for this contest – the city could host it even this year. We are looking forward to the next stage – we must make a bright, impressive presentation of our bid at the forthcoming contest in St.Petersburg”, Dmitry Bugrov said. “I think that our bid will be presented not only by our team led by Magaz Asanov, but also by the joint delegation comprising representatives of the regional government, city administration and university leaders. We would like to express our gratitude to the government of Sverdlovsk region, the city administration and our partners for the financial and organizational support”.

The First Vice-Rector added that the “Ural” Finals of the ACM-ICPC are going to be the most high-tech in the history of the contest.

The Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications of Sverdlovsk Region Sergei Frolov warmly thanked the students and their instructor Magaz Asanov for their initiative and hard work: “It is always pleasant to congratulate winners. Thank you very much, well done, it is great that you are developing this area of knowledge and provide excellent training for your students. I hope all of us will do a good job promoting Ekaterinburg’s bid. Of course, it is important where the contest is going to take place, but the result achieved is even more important”, the Deputy Minister said.

According to the Deputy Head of the City Administration Alexander Vysokinsky, who was also present at the meeting, this is a prominent event for the city community.

“Ekaterinburg has now become one of the leaders in social and economic development among other million-plus agglomerations in Russia. These days Ekaterinburg as a world city is comparable to such cities as Seattle, Chicago and Birmingham”, Alexander Vysokinsky said. “Talking about the global competition among cities, we should keep in mind that the main factor of success is the population’s intellectual potential. Such events will naturally be benefitial for Ekaterinburg. It is the development of human potential that will determine our future”.

The participants of the meeting agreed that holding the ACM-ICPC World Finals in Ekaterinburg is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the Ural capital as a place suitable for international events of this level.

“It will be a great warming-up for the city’s hosting the FIFA World Cup 2018 and EXPO-2020”, the Deputy Head pointed out.

The ACM-ICPC World Finals in Ekaterinburg will help promote information technologies in central Eurasia – there has never been events of such level held in this area.

The results will be known on 31 May 2013. Ekaterinburg has three rivals – Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Phuket (Thailand) and Kochi (India).

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest  traces its roots to the first competition held in 1970. It operates under the auspices of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). During the long history of the contest the following rules have evolved: a team of three university students is provided with one computer and is given five-hour deadline to solve the maximum number of problems. In case the teams have solved equal number of problems, the winner is determined on the basis of the time spent.

The contest comprises three levels of competitions: local contests, semi-finals (regional contests) and World Finals. The teams winning regional contests get through to the final round and compete for the title of the world champions or the champions of different regions – Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, Pacific region, Africa and Middle East. Russian teams for the first time took part in the contest in 1993-1994 when the new, Eastern European region, was introduced.