The ETH ACM ICPC Local Contest will take place on Saturday, October 11, 2014.
The competition is individual (no teams) and held according to the usual ACM format: 5 hours, 5 to 10 problems, allowed languages: C, C++, Java. Two teams will be formed from the best eligible participants (enrolled at ETH and meeting the eligibility requirements).
This summer, I was among the lucky three who represented ETH at the ACM ICPC World Finals (International Collegiate Programming Contest). We competed against the best 120 teams from around the world and spent three exciting weeks in Russia.
“Welcome to the heart of Russia. Welcome to Yekaterinburg. A city with 1.5 million citizens and an over 300 year old history. […] Yekaterinburg is a unique megapolis. On the border of Europe and Asia we have taken all the best from the east and from the west. […] It is the place where you can become an ACM ICPC 2014 champion. Добро пожаловать!”
This is how we and a hall full of excited young math and computer science students were greeted in a pretty epic opening ceremony. It was full of spectacular dances, orchestral music and also featured the cool video I just quoted. Even Vint Cerf made an appearance – in the form of a Jor-El-style video message. So how did we get there?
ETH-Team (from left to right): Daniel Graf, Nikola Djokic, Jan Hązła (coach), Vladimir Serbinenko (coach), Johannes Kapfhammer (Image: Bob Smith, Hans Domjan, ACM ICPC)