The ACM competition is entering its 29th year, and has grown into the largest and most prestigious contest of its kind, with the number of teams quadrupling since IBM began sponsorship in 1997. This year, the world's brightest collegiate programmers will go head-to-head, tackling a semester's worth of real world programming problems in one afternoon, while vying for a spot at the Contest's World Finals.
The ACM-ICPC aims to develop the next generation of information technology talent, and to ensure that the computer sciences education pipeline remains full. The Contest has operated on an open source platform for the past three years, allowing students to become familiar with Linux and Eclipse. This year, IBM will expose these programmers to POWER parallel computing technologies. Known for their enormous speed, memory, storage capacity and number crunching capabilities, IBM POWER-based parallel supercomputers have been used to solve some of the most difficult problems in physics, engineering, biology, geology and the environment.
"With much of the leading work in programming today dedicated to developing applications that will run on parallel supercomputers, this contest will give young programmers exposure to advanced programming environments," said Gabby Silberman, Program Director, IBM Centers for Advanced Studies, and Sponsorship Executive.
Over the next three months, regional competitions across the globe are expected to draw more than 3,000 teams from over 70 countries on 6 continents. Of these, 75 teams will compete at the World Finals, April 3-7, 2005, in Shanghai, China, hosted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The 2004 ACM-ICPC World Finals took place in Prague, Czech Republic last March, where the St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics emerged as the world champion.
"This is the world's premier university competition in the computing sciences and engineering," said Dr. Bill Poucher, ICPC Executive Director and Baylor Professor. "IBM, ACM and the world's universities have partnered to offer the best and brightest students the opportunity to challenge themselves to achieve far beyond classroom expectations so that they can build the cutting edge technology of tomorrow." The ICPC Web Site is http://icpc.baylor.edu.
The contest challenges students, working in three-person teams, to rely on their programming skills and creativity during a five-hour battle of logic, strategy, and mental endurance. Students solve complex problems using both traditional and new software development tools. As part of IBM's continuing commitment to education, the company will be working closely with team coaches to provide technology and software to universities, as well as learn more about how professors keep their curriculum current in today's ever-changing environment.
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you would like to interview your local collegiate ACM team(s), or are interested in joining the team during a practice, please contact Chris Murray at 215-790-4359.
For a complete schedule of regional contests worldwide, visit http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Regionals/UpcomingRegionals.html.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM software offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM home page at www.software.ibm.com.
About IBM's POWER Architecture
IBM's power architecture is the basis for the Blue Gene supercomputer research project, which is dedicated to exploring a new family of supercomputer optimized for bandwidth, scalability and the ability to handle large amounts of data while consuming a fraction of the power and floor space required by today's fastest systems. IBM's POWER architecture offers customers open, innovative technology solutions through either the AIX 5L, OS/400 or Linux operating systems that complement the growing demand for 64-bit applications. In addition to being at the core of the powerful, industry leading IBM eServer systems, the POWER microprocessor technology can be found in Nintendo game consoles, Apple computers, and some of the world's most powerful supercomputers and storage systems.
About ACM
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership of 75,000 by delivering cutting edge technical information and transferring ideas from theory to practice. ACM hosts the computing industry's leading Portal to Computing Literature. With its journals and magazines, special interest groups, conferences, workshops, electronic forums and Career Resource Centre, ACM is a primary resource to the information technology field. For more information, see www.acm.org.
IBM Contact: Jennifer Clemente 415-545-3230 Email Contact Christopher Murray Tierney Communications 215-790-4359 Email Contact