St. Petersburg University of IT, Mechanics and Optics Wins IBM-Sponsored International Collegiate Programming Contest

News provided by

May 24, 2017, 19:00 ET

RAPID CITY, S.D., May 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A trio of students from St. Petersburg University of IT, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) have emerged as World Champions of the 41^stAnnual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals sponsored by IBM (NYSE: IBM). The contest, hosted in Rapid City by Excellence in Computer Programming, brought together the next generation of developers from 133 universities around the world, where they competed on the most elite programming level.

Headquartered at Baylor University and known as the "Battle of the Brains," the world's oldest and most prestigious programming competition challenged teams, each comprised of three students, to solve a series of complex real-world problems in just five hours. Demonstrating the elite talent of its team members, St. Petersburg ITMO University successfully solved 10 problems to earn the victory.

"IBM values this opportunity to assemble the brightest students from the world's leading universities and share with them the technology trends that will shape the future and allow them to build new innovations fueled by cloud, cognitive and more," said Jonas Jacobi, Vice President, IBM Developer Advocacy, Worldwide. "These students are the future leaders of our industry and we are committed to fostering their development with these critical technologies as they prepare to enter the global workforce."

IBM has been rapidly expanding breakthrough technologies for cloud and cognitive computing that are easily accessed by developers, including quantum computing, blockchain and more. This ready foundation of transformative tools equips programmers, designers and coders with the potential to build revolutionary applications across a multitude of industries.

"Competing at the ACM-ICPC is an experience that will impact these students throughout their lives," said Dr. Bill Poucher, ICPC Executive Director and Baylor University Professor. "I am excited to see what these students will do with the knowledge they gained and the dauntless problem solving abilities they showcased at World Finals as they continue their academic and professional pursuits."

University of Warsaw, Seoul National University and St. Petersburg State University finished the competition in second, third, and fourth places, all earning coveted gold medals. The regional champions are:

Africa and the Middle East: German University in Cairo
Asia: Seoul National University
Europe: St. Petersburg ITMO University
Latin America: Universidad de La Habana
North America: University of Waterloo
South Pacific: University of New South Wales

The top twelve teams received medals:

Gold Medalists (4): St. Petersburg ITMO University, University of Warsaw, Seoul National University, St. Petersburg State University
Silver Medalists (4): Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University
Bronze Medalists (4): KAIST, Ural Federal University, KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, The University of Tokyo

The 133 World Finalists emerged from local and regional ICPC competitions this past fall. Initially, selection took place from a field of more than 300,000 students in computing disciplines worldwide. A record number of students advanced to the regional level, as 46,381 contestants from 2,948 universities in 103 countries on six continents competed at more than 480 sites, all with the goal of earning one of the coveted invitations to South Dakota.

In addition to competing in the World Finals, students were exposed to the latest technologies from IBM through speakers and interactive, on-site demos of IBM's Cloud Platform. The combination of IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson, delivered through the IBM Cloud with extensive API support, allows developers to rapidly build cognitive applications which can run in secure, hybrid cloud environments.

About the ACM-ICPC
Headquartered at Baylor University, the ACM-ICPC is a global competition among the world's university students, nurturing new generations of talent in the science and art of information technology. For more information about the ACM-ICPC, including downloadable high resolution photographs and videos, visit ICPC headquarters and ICPCNews. Additional information can be found via the "Battle of the Brains" podcast series. Follow the contest on Twitter @ICPCNews and #ICPC2017.

About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, with more than 100,000 members, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers, professionals, and students to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking. For more information, see www.acm.org.

About IBM
IBM is a globally integrated technology and consulting company. With operations in more than 170 countries, IBM attracts and retains some of the world's most talented people to help solve problems and provide an edge for businesses, governments and non-profits. Innovation is at the core of IBM's strategy. The company develops and sells software and systems hardware and a broad range of infrastructure, focusing on growth initiatives such as cognitive computing, cloud computing, big data and analytics, mobile, social business and security. For more information, visit www.ibm.com.

About Excellence in Computer Programming (ECP)
The ECP champions a culture of excellence by integrating the capabilities of the host partners of South Dakota. Host partners who are the leaders of industry and government are providing the personnel and financial resources for the 2017 World Finals. Rapid City is the home of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT), the engineering and science research university of South Dakota. SDSMT is a research partner of the 8000-foot-deep Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), the world's newest laboratory for the study of neutrinos and dark matter which is located in Lead, South Dakota. ECP is a non-profit corporation dedicated to providing an environment in which people of all ages and ability levels can develop their coding expertise through individualized study, extracurricular activities, and participation in competitive programming.

Media Contact – North America:
Courtney Thomas, Tierney Communications
+1 (203) 952-2876
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM