Top Collegiate Software Programmers to Vie for World Championship at IBM-Sponsored "Battle of the Brains"

WACO, Texas, May 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The next generation of elite software engineers will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 30 through July 4 to compete in the 37^th Annual World Finals of the IBM-sponsored (NYSE: IBM) Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

Known as the Battle of the Brains, the world's oldest and most prestigious programming contest will be hosted by St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO), and will challenge students to solve complex real-world problems under a strict five hour deadline. Of the 120 teams competing in the contest, 17 represent the United States. Each team comprises three students and only one team will emerge victorious to claim "The World's Smartest Trophy." 

This year, the contest will expose students to key emerging trends and capabilities, such as applying analytics technology to Big Data – a major economic growth engine and career opportunity worldwide. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of Big Data are created from a variety of sources such as social media platforms, cell phones, digital photos and videos. By applying analytics technology to Big Data, organizations in all industries can now establish predictive insights that provide a competitive advantage. For example, analytics software is able to help sort through massive amounts of Big Data and establish a real-time alarm system intended to predict rising brain pressure in patients with traumatic brain injuries.

"As the sponsor, our goal is to celebrate excellence in the next generation of computing scientists, and to provide insight and experience that will help them successfully transition into business and technology professionals," said Doug Heintzman, Director of Strategy for IBM Social Business and ICPC Sponsorship Executive. "We expose students to the latest technology areas, such as Big Data, Social Business, Mobile Computing and Cloud Computing.  The students are also exposed to a great variety of cultures and ways of thinking." He added, "In St. Petersburg, students will explore IBM's Technology Showcase and network with world-leading technology experts. This is also a great opportunity for IBM to get a good look at the very best and brightest students of computing in the world and we hope to hire, as interns or as permanent employees, many of the contest participants to help us invent the future and build Smarter Planet solutions."

The 120 teams 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 29,479 contestants from 2,322 universities in 91 countries on 6 continents competed at more than 300 sites, all with the goal of earning one of the coveted 120 invitations to St. Petersburg.

"In 1970, the ICPC began as a competition among the universities of Texas and has transformed into a worldwide phenomenon extending throughout northeastern Europe and the Russian Republic in the 1990's," said Dr. Bill Poucher, ICPC Executive Director and Baylor University Professor.  "We are thrilled to open doors of opportunity for these talented young students as they face real world challenges in a competitive environment.  We are excited to see this elite level of talent compete in St. Petersburg with University ITMO as host and IBM as sponsor."  

The ICPC sponsorship, in cooperation with the world's largest educational and scientific computing society ACM, is just one of IBM's many university-focused programs to better educate millions of students for a more competitive IT workforce. The IBM Academic Initiative offers colleges and universities a wide range of benefits including free access to IBM software, discounted hardware, course materials, training and curriculum development. In addition, IBM offers the Extreme Blue global internship program, which challenges interns to use their technological skills to develop business plans. Since 1999, nearly 400 patent disclosures have been submitted from Extreme Blue participants. To date, dozens of applicants from the United States Extreme Blue program have identified themselves as ICPC contestants. 

For more information about the contest, visit www.ibm.com/university/acmcontest/, www.battleofthebrains.podbean.com and www.youtube.com/BrainBattleICPC, or follow along on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrainBattleICPC, #ICPC2013. 

For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com/software and www.ibm.com/university.

Participating Schools by Region:

Africa and the Middle East: Alexandria University –  Faculty of Engineering; The American University in Cairo; Arab Academy for Science and Technology – Alexandria; Cairo University –  Faculty of Computers and Information; German University in Cairo; Tishreen University; University of Cape Town

Asia: Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology; Shahjalal University of Science and Technology; Beihang University; Beijing Institute of Technology; Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications; Fudan University; Harbin Institute of Technology; Huazhong University of Science & Technology; Ningbo Institute of Technology, ZJU; Northeast Normal University; Peking University; Renmin University of China; Shanghai Jiao Tong University; South China University of Technology; Tianjin University; Tsinghua University; University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; Zhejiang University; Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen) University; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; The Chinese University of Hong Kong; University of Hong Kong; Institut Teknologi Bandung; Chennai Mathematical Institute; Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay; Indian Institute of Technology – Indore; Indian Institute of Technology – Roorkee; International Institute of Information Technology – Hyderabad; Amirkabir University of Technology; Sharif University of Technology; University of Tehran; The University of Electro-Communications; The University of Tokyo; Tokyo Institute of Technology; KAIST; SungKyunKwan University; Nanyang Technological University; National University of Singapore; National Taiwan University; Can Tho University

Europe & the Russian Federation: Belarusian State University; Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen; International IT University; Kazakh-British Technical University; Kaunas University of Technology; Universitet Leiden; Jagiellonian University in Krakow; University of Warsaw; University of Wroclaw; University of Bucharest; Altai State Technical University; Izhevsk State Technical University; Moscow Aviation Institute; Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology; Moscow State Institute of Steel and Alloys; Moscow State University; Novosibirsk State University; Perm State University; Saint Petersburg Academic University; Samara State Aerospace University; Saratov State University; St. Petersburg National Research University of ITMO; St. Petersburg State University; Ufa State Aviation Technical University; Ural Federal University; Comenius University; Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya; ETH Zurich; Taras Shevchenko Kiev National University; V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University   

Latin America: Universidad de Buenos Aires – FCEN; Universidad Nacional del Sur; Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica; Universidade de Sao Paulo –  Escola Politecnica; Universidade de Sao Paulo- Instituto de Ciencias Matematicas e de Computacao; Universidade Estadual de Campinas; Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Universidad de Chile; EAFIT University; Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Bogota; Universidad Tecnologica de Pereira; Universidad de La Habana; Universidad de las Ciencias Informaticas; Escuela Superior De Computo Instituto Politecnico Nacional; Universidad Panamericana Campus Bonaterra; Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria –  FIIS

North America: University of Calgary; University of British Columbia; University of Lethbridge; University of Manitoba; University of Toronto; University of Waterloo; Carnegie Mellon University; Columbia University; LeTourneau University; Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Stanford University; University of Central Florida; University of Chicago; University of Connecticut; University of Florida; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Maryland; University of Minnesota –  Twin Cities; University of Southern California; University of Virginia; University of Wisconsin – Madison

South Pacific: University of New South Wales; University of Sydney

About the ACM ICPC
Headquartered at Baylor University (www.baylor.edu), 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 photographs, and the complete World Finals roster and final standings, visit ICPC headquarters Web site http://acmicpc.org. A podcast series "Battle of the Brains" is at www.battleofthebrains.podbean.com. RSS feeds are available. For IBM's insights, visit www.ibm.com/university/acmcontest/. Follow the contest on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrainBattleICPC.

About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology and service provider. Over the last decade, IBM has driven a significant transformation of its business model as the company shifts to higher value areas and improve efficiency of the business. IBM has been building these capabilities to round out the portfolio to address the needs of clients and the society. IBM has 35,000 software engineers in more than 90 research and development laboratories around the globe, who focus on solving real-world business issues for clients in more than 170 countries. IBM invests in high business values and strategic markets such as Big Data; Social Business; Mobile Computing and Cloud Computing. IBM provides industry solutions in areas such as smarter cities, smarter commerce, health care, energy, utility, finance, communications, public service, transportation, manufacturing, chemicals, electronics, media, entertainment, and many others.  For more information, visit www.ibm.com/software.

About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals 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.

About St. Petersburg Research University ITMO
St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) has a historical commitment to excellence in problem solving.  Having championed the ICPC throughout the Russian Federation and surrounding countries, ITMO is among the most be-medaled university in the world with the most World Championships of any university in the world, four.  As one of only a handful of National Research Universities, ITMO empowers the next generation of innovators.  For more information, visit http://en.ifmo.ru/.

Media Contact:
Chas Kurtz
For the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC)
Tierney
(215) 790-4386
[email protected]  

SOURCE IBM