Warsaw University Team Are World Programming Champions, Again

By Tom Foremski - March 19, 2007

Warsaw_2007_awards.jpg

Warsaw University's team  won the 31st annual World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, sponsored by IBM and held at IBM Tokyo Research Lab.


There were 6,099 teams on 6 continents in regional contests and 88 teams qualified for the finals. 25 teams were from North America, 2 from Africa/Middle East, 10 from Latin America, 20 from Europe and Russia, 31 from Asia/South Pacific.


Warsaw University solved 8 problem sets, in second place was Tsinghua University with 7 solved, the rest solved 6 or less. Highest scoring US team was MIT in fourth place behind St. Petersburg University.


Warsaw won the 2003 championship.


Polish programmers have won many international programming contests, reflecting the country's strong history in math and cryptography. Poland is becoming a favored site for many US company development centers.


Contest Standings - The 2007 ACM-ICPC World Finals


The Problem Sets

Past Contests - The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest

Link to ACM Contest

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March 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comment | Category: FutureWatch | Subscribe to SVW

Comments (7)

I love the Polish people and wouldn't want to detract anything from them.

However, I've been a member of ACM for many years and they tend to be a bit on the theoretical side.

Frankly, in high(er)-end programming, Poland, Russia and China kick India's butt. But in everyday, real-world endeavors (especially in the enterprise sector), India is nearly impossible to beat.

It's really a reflection of their educational systems. I can only speak briefly about Poland (or Russia) since my contacts at the programming level have been mostly through the ACM and IEEE Computer Society.

But since I'm in China -- and since my company is the outsourcing hub for the MIT of China (Tsinghua Unversity) -- I can definitely speak to this. Let's face it, look at global university rankings in science and technology: India, sans IIS, almost never makes the list. But in China, we have numerous universities that are very good-to-excellent at the post-graduate level. Hence, in some high(er)-end apps, I'd go with China over India.

This being said, if it were a comparison of undergraduate capabilities, the IIT grads can make the head spin of just about any undergrad in China. Bottom line: IIT, with it's trade school like focus, has the best and brightest in India totally focused on the task at hand, producing perhaps the best programmers (at the undergrad level) in the world.

My point: ACM has a strong focus on theory; Poland is good at theory (as is China).

Final comment: Heard you on the current Sam Whitmore podcast. Good luck with your two new endeavors. For your readers, the podcast is at: http://doiop.com/tom-mp3 (it's the downloadable MP3 enclosure link).

Signed up for the newsletter and may want to give the company pitch a try, although we're reworking our operational plan and may need a month or two.


Tom Foremski:

David: Interesting. I've also been hearing about India from a couple of US sources who were disappointed with the level of coding skills and said that the Universities are not in touch with real world needs...


Peter:

David,
I've been working for the last 3 years for one of the Indian outsourcing giant and I have totally opposite opinion about their skills. Overall they are quite good in implementing of packaged solutions, acceptable in support and maintenance but hopeless in new development. Their programming and especially problem solving skills are very low.
I believe that programming contests reflect very well the level of IT educations provided in different countries.
India universities produce thousand of IT graduates every year and knowing how ambitious they are they would do everything to achieve success in any international contest. It would give them enormous reference point in the expansion of their IT business around the world.


radhakrishna rao:

Hello folks,

I am an indian working in a MNC. Well, true that indians have never innovated things..but that does not mean that we are very bad in problem solving abilities and innovating..it is just that our system does not provide these things to do..so please correct that statement.


Ashish Gaikwad:

Hi folks,
I totally second with Radhakrishna about the Indian education system. Except for the IIT's there are very few or handful educational institutions in India which emphasize on the practical approach as the system relies more on the theoretical examinations that usually take place for every grade more like a annual exam. I am myself an Indian working in a MNC and agree that I also acquired most of the required industry level practical knowledge only after taking up a job , much like most of the other Indian IT graduates produced every year. But am very sure this will change very soon as more and more experienced IT engineers who are aware of our educational system's problem will share their experiences and knowledge with the undergrads in such institutions.


Peter:

Dear Radhakrishna,
I tried to be polite in my opinion about Indian IT skills. But because you asked for correction I have to admit that I exaggerated when I said that their problem solving skills are very low. The truth is they are almost not existent. I’m telling this based on 20 years of IT practice, including 15 years in various MNCs and 3 years in Indian IT giant.


Tom:

I am disppointed with the British efforts, in this field, they can't compete with eastern european countries. Duirng the war years the UK was a poineer in technology and programming skills, now it is a poor problem solving contestant.


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