Local Contest 2015

The ETH ACM ICPC Local Contest will take place on Saturday, October 10, 2015.

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).

The first three eligible participants will form the first ETH team in the Regional Contest. The second ETH team will be formed from the next three eligible participants who are also eligible and willing to compete for ETH next year. In case a participant selected according to this rule solved less than three problems, the committee reserves the right to select another person instead.

Those teams will represent ETH at the Southwestern Europe Regional Contest in Porto, Portugal held on November 21st and 22nd. Similar to last years, we are delighted to hold the contest together with EPFL in Lausanne (PolyProg, note that the contest is joint, but SWERC teams are not).

Schedule of Local contest: 10 October 2015

  • 11:00 Meeting in the VIS Bureau (CAB E 31), breakfast, late registration.
  • 11:30 Briefing, last questions, seat allocation.
  • 12:00 Contest starts (CAB H56/H57).
  • 17:00 Contest ends.
  • 17:15 Announcement of results.
  • 17:30 Apéro.

Please register for the contest here: http://swerc.hc2.ch/.

Should I show up? Why not? In particular, consider coming if any of the following holds:

  • You have any sort of interest and/or experience in competitive programming
  • You are curious after the first weeks of Algolab or ACM lab.
  • You like mathematical puzzles and don’t mind implementing solutions in C++/Java.
  • You simply suspect that this sort of competition might be fun.

There are no prerequisites except for basic C++/Java (in particular basic I/O and STL in case of C++). Before the contest we will introduce the rules and the system to the newcomers.

Rules: The local contest is a “closed-book” competition. No materials are allowed, i.e., no books, cheat sheets, Internet etc. The language references for C, C++ and Java will be available. For the detailed rules, consult “Contest Rules“. You may also wish to take a look at the team manual for the judging system.

Lastly, note that you need access to the CAB Building. All CS students should be able to access the building with their Legis. You can request an access code here: https://www.bi.id.ethz.ch/eAdressen/
If you are not a CS student and cannot access the building, please contact us at acm_at_vis_dot_ethz_dot_ch, so that we can open the door.

Report ACM ICPC World Finals 2015 in Marrakesh

DANIEL GRAF – senior problem resolver

Why does ETH send three students to the African desert? Answer: So that they can spend five hours in front of a computer trying to solve as many problems as 127 other teams from all over the world. In other words: to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals in Marrakesh, Morocco [1].

Team
Our team in front of the Koutoubia mosque from left to right: Jan Wilken Dörrie (coach), Andrei Pârvu, Martin Raszyk, Daniel Graf

Continue reading “Report ACM ICPC World Finals 2015 in Marrakesh”