ACM Programming Contest NWERC 2001

	Northwestern Europe Programming Contest
Contest 2001 - About
Welcome About Overview Event Outline Contest Rules Contest Site Accommodation Registration Application Further Information Other Sites Schedule Information Contest Contacts Links	Overview The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest is a programming world championship for college students, organized and conducted yearly by the ACM. Started in 1970 as a local contest in Texas and having grown exponentially in the number of participating universities each year, the contest now is spanning the globe. Meanwhile it has been referred to as the Superbowl of Computer Programming or even as the Olympic Games of Computer Science. The ACM programming contest provides college students with an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem solving and computing skills. Apart from the fun of competing (and hopefully winning), the contest also provides an excellent opportunity for listening to well-known speakers and making international contacts in computing science. The contest is a two-tiered competition among teams of students representing institutions of higher education. The winning teams of the regional contests (held from October to mid-November each year) will go forward to the contest world finals which are held in the following spring. Outline of the Event This Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest is one of eighty-two regional programming contests to select the teams that will represent our region at the finals. The contest finals will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the middle of March 2002. The Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest is organized by the ACM Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest Organization Committee under the patronage of the Department of Computer Science at the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. This contest will last 2½ days from 2 - 4 November, 2001. We suggest participants to already arrive on Friday afternoon and register for the contest. On Saturday morning there will be several presentations and interesting talks. At noon, lunch will be served in the university cafeteria. The afternoon will be reserved for a practice session to get acquainted with the contest environment (networked Unix workstations). The evening will feature a secret social event. The actual contest will take place from 11:00 to 16:00 on Sunday. The starting time is not yet fixed; in any case, the contest will last exactly five hours. Each team, composed of up to three students, will get a set of six to nine problems which they have to solve on a single computer, programming either C, C++, Java or Pascal. During the whole contest, a buffet lunch will be provided. The contest will end with the award ceremony where the winning teams will receive their prizes and the nominates for the world finals will be anounced. Contest Rules Summary The contest rules closely resemble to the rules to be used at the finals. The most important aspects are briefly outlined below (detailed rules are also available): Team Eligibility A team consists of three contestants. Each contestant must be a student enrolled in a degree program at the sponsoring institution with at least half-time load. At least two contestants must be undergraduate students. No contestant may have completed two years of post-baccalaureate studies or hold a graduate degree. Students who have competed in two contest finals are not eligible. A member of the faculty of the institution sponsoring the team must certify the eligibility of all contestants. Each team designates a team coach (preferably not a contestant) who will be the team representative and point of contact before (e-mail, fax and material mail) and during (direct conversation) the contest. Each university may send up to three teams. A university is not allowed to participate in more than one regional contest. Since the call for participation may reach more than one person at your university, please ask around to make sure we do not receive several (uncoordinated) applications from different persons from the same university. Contest format The contest lasts five hours. Each team has to solve a set of six to nine problems on a single computer in either ANSI-C, ISO-Pascal, ANSI-C++ or Sun Java. To get an idea of the kind of problems, have a look at the problem set archives which contains a large number of problems from past contests. Contestants may bring reference materials such as books and manuals; but neither machine-readable versions nor their own computers or pocket calculators are allowed. Solutions are judged by running them for some secret test cases. The contest judges are the solely responsible for determining the correctness of the submitted solutions; their decision is final. Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams who solve the same number of problems are ranked by least total time. Each participant will receive an award. Furthermore, IBM will be donating software to all participants. Contest Regions Teams are expected to participate at the site assigned to their country. Exceptionally (with written consent of both contest directors) teams from Europe are allowed to participate in an other than their assigned location. However, if an university can send more than one team, all of them have to go to the same location. Requests to change the location should be addressed to both contest directors and submitted in written form, explaining the reason of the change. Contest Site The contest will be held at the gym of Merck KGaA. Trams run every 15 minutes from the inner city to the contest hall. A huge parking space is available in front of the contest hall. Accommodation You have to reservate hotels yourself. However we will post a list of hotels and arrange special prices for you. Expenses and Registration There is no participation fee as long as you don't miss the application deadline (October 1st, 2001). Teams registering later than this date will have to pay a participation fee of 50 Euro per team. (Actually, there is a fee for every team, but IBM will pay for the teams registering in time. So don't be silly! Don't miss the deadline!) Teams arriving before Friday noon who wish to have lunch in the University Cafeteria will have to pay the standard price (around 5 DM). Don't forget to bring your student ID card with you! On Saturday and Sunday, lunch and dinner is provided. Teams are required to check-in at the registration desk saturday morning from 9.00 to 11.00. You cannot participate if you have not checked in, so make sure you arrive at the desk in time. Application We have room for 50 teams. Team places will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis with the additional constraint that third teams are only accepted after all requests for second teams have been satisfied. If you want to participate, we need to receive your completely filled in application form no later than October 14th, 2001. You will be notified of your confirmation or rejections of registration no later than October 21th, 2001. In case you are going to have a local or national contest at your university later than the application deadline, you can submit a "blank" application form, i.e. an application without the names of the team members (but everything else must be filled in). This application must also reach us by October 14th, the actual team member names must be provided by no later than October 28th. Further Information - How to contact us Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you should need more information. We strongly recommend you to consult our web site regularly to get the latest news and the most up-to-date information. We are looking forward to receive many team applications and make this an event long remebered. Yours sincerely The Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest Steering Committee The Other European Sites If you have further questions on the divisional level or if you want to participate in an other than your assigned site, please consult the European divisional page to find the addresses of all other European sites.

Northwestern Europe Programming Contest

Contest 2001 - About

Overview

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest is a programming world championship for college students, organized and conducted yearly by the ACM. Started in 1970 as a local contest in Texas and having grown exponentially in the number of participating universities each year, the contest now is spanning the globe. Meanwhile it has been referred to as the Superbowl of Computer Programming or even as the Olympic Games of Computer Science.

The ACM programming contest provides college students with an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem solving and computing skills. Apart from the fun of competing (and hopefully winning), the contest also provides an excellent opportunity for listening to well-known speakers and making international contacts in computing science.

The contest is a two-tiered competition among teams of students representing institutions of higher education. The winning teams of the regional contests (held from October to mid-November each year) will go forward to the contest world finals which are held in the following spring.

Outline of the Event

This Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest is one of eighty-two regional programming contests to select the teams that will represent our region at the finals. The contest finals will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the middle of March 2002.

The Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest is organized by the ACM Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest Organization Committee under the patronage of the Department of Computer Science at the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. This contest will last 2½ days from 2 - 4 November, 2001.

We suggest participants to already arrive on Friday afternoon and register for the contest. On Saturday morning there will be several presentations and interesting talks. At noon, lunch will be served in the university cafeteria. The afternoon will be reserved for a practice session to get acquainted with the contest environment (networked Unix workstations). The evening will feature a secret social event.

The actual contest will take place from 11:00 to 16:00 on Sunday. The starting time is not yet fixed; in any case, the contest will last exactly five hours. Each team, composed of up to three students, will get a set of six to nine problems which they have to solve on a single computer, programming either C, C++, Java or Pascal. During the whole contest, a buffet lunch will be provided. The contest will end with the award ceremony where the winning teams will receive their prizes and the nominates for the world finals will be anounced.

Contest Rules Summary

The contest rules closely resemble to the rules to be used at the finals. The most important aspects are briefly outlined below (detailed rules are also available):

Team Eligibility

A team consists of three contestants. Each contestant must be a student enrolled in a degree program at the sponsoring institution with at least half-time load. At least two contestants must be undergraduate students. No contestant may have completed two years of post-baccalaureate studies or hold a graduate degree. Students who have competed in two contest finals are not eligible. A member of the faculty of the institution sponsoring the team must certify the eligibility of all contestants. Each team designates a team coach (preferably not a contestant) who will be the team representative and point of contact before (e-mail, fax and material mail) and during (direct conversation) the contest.

Each university may send up to three teams. A university is not allowed to participate in more than one regional contest. Since the call for participation may reach more than one person at your university, please ask around to make sure we do not receive several (uncoordinated) applications from different persons from the same university.

Contest format

The contest lasts five hours. Each team has to solve a set of six to nine problems on a single computer in either ANSI-C, ISO-Pascal, ANSI-C++ or Sun Java. To get an idea of the kind of problems, have a look at the problem set archives which contains a large number of problems from past contests.

Contestants may bring reference materials such as books and manuals; but neither machine-readable versions nor their own computers or pocket calculators are allowed. Solutions are judged by running them for some secret test cases. The contest judges are the solely responsible for determining the correctness of the submitted solutions; their decision is final. Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams who solve the same number of problems are ranked by least total time.

Each participant will receive an award. Furthermore, IBM will be donating software to all participants.

Contest Regions

Teams are expected to participate at the site assigned to their country. Exceptionally (with written consent of both contest directors) teams from Europe are allowed to participate in an other than their assigned location. However, if an university can send more than one team, all of them have to go to the same location. Requests to change the location should be addressed to both contest directors and submitted in written form, explaining the reason of the change.

Contest Site

The contest will be held at the gym of Merck KGaA. Trams run every 15 minutes from the inner city to the contest hall. A huge parking space is available in front of the contest hall.

Accommodation

You have to reservate hotels yourself. However we will post a list of hotels and arrange special prices for you.

Expenses and Registration

There is no participation fee as long as you don't miss the application deadline (October 1st, 2001). Teams registering later than this date will have to pay a participation fee of 50 Euro per team. (Actually, there is a fee for every team, but IBM will pay for the teams registering in time. So don't be silly! Don't miss the deadline!)

Teams arriving before Friday noon who wish to have lunch in the University Cafeteria will have to pay the standard price (around 5 DM). Don't forget to bring your student ID card with you! On Saturday and Sunday, lunch and dinner is provided.

Teams are required to check-in at the registration desk saturday morning from 9.00 to 11.00. You cannot participate if you have not checked in, so make sure you arrive at the desk in time.

Application

We have room for 50 teams. Team places will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis with the additional constraint that third teams are only accepted after all requests for second teams have been satisfied. If you want to participate, we need to receive your completely filled in application form no later than October 14th, 2001. You will be notified of your confirmation or rejections of registration no later than October 21th, 2001.

In case you are going to have a local or national contest at your university later than the application deadline, you can submit a "blank" application form, i.e. an application without the names of the team members (but everything else must be filled in). This application must also reach us by October 14th, the actual team member names must be provided by no later than October 28th.

Further Information - How to contact us

Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you should need more information. We strongly recommend you to consult our web site regularly to get the latest news and the most up-to-date information.

We are looking forward to receive many team applications and make this an event long remebered.

Yours sincerely

The Northwestern Europe Regional Programming Contest Steering Committee

The Other European Sites

If you have further questions on the divisional level or if you want to participate in an other than your assigned site, please consult the European divisional page to find the addresses of all other European sites.

Last updates: Thursday, 01.11.2001 09:03:40 CET

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