New Course Stems from Back-to-Back Appearances at ICPC World Finals
In September, Elijah Huang, Jerry Li and Thomas Neill found themselves in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Representing UC Irvine in the World Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), the world’s oldest and largest programming competition, they were among 423 finalists of the original 73,083 students competing. The contest involves solving real-world problems, fostering collaboration and innovation while performing under pressure.
“The government of Kazakhstan really rolled out the red carpet for this event,” says Michael Shindler, an assistant professor of teaching at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). Shindler traveled with the team to Astana as the faculty advisor. “They treated us like we were playing for the World Cup in soccer! We even got to visit the Presidential Palace.”
This was all on the heels of the team competing in Luxor, Egypt for the 2023 World Finals. Qualifying for finals two years in a row was a first for UCI, and Shindler received recognition in Kazakhstan for getting a team to the World Finals five or more times (this was his sixth team to attend). “It was an incredible trip,” says Shindler, who was extremely impressed with the team’s performance despite not returning with a medal, as hoped.
“Just qualifying for the World Finals placed us in the top ~.5% of teams,” says Huang, a junior at UCI double majoring in math and computer science. “Being surrounded by some of the brightest minds who also share my love of problem-solving makes the World Finals truly unique.”
As members of UCI’s ACM@UCI student club, for years, Huang, Neill and Li had been meeting twice a week to solve a variety of programming problems, practicing skills related to dynamic programming, discrete math, geometry, graphs and greedy algorithms.
Li and Neill, who both graduated in June 2024, now apply those skills as software engineers, with Li working at SingleStore and Neill at Akuna Capital.
“My teammates have graduated and are enjoying work, and I can no longer compete in ICPC because I reached the limit of two World Finals participations,” says Huang. However, he plans to remain involved as a team coach.
“This year, twice as many people were interested in competing in ICPC, possibly due to our remarkable performances,” says Huang, who helped train six teams to participate in the ICPC Southern California Regional Contest on November 16, 2024. “This was a record number of teams for UCI, and our top two teams placed 8th and 11th out of 88 teams!”
Furthermore, in an effort to build off their success, Huang and his teammates, along with Shindler, proposed the first-ever ICPC course in the School of ICS. It was approved for later in the academic year. “I’m beyond excited to introduce the joy of ICPC to UCI students when the course debuts this spring,” says Huang. “Next year, we’ll come back stronger than ever!”
For more information on how to get involved with UCI’s official competitive programming club, visit ACM@UCI. You can also look for ICS 80 in spring quarter 2025, the ICPC-inspired course aimed at first-year students.
— Shani Murray