UL Students Achieve Victory at Quarterfinals of International Programming Contest

This year, among 55 teams from Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Kaliningrad region of Russia participating in the quarterfinals of the Western sub-region of Northern Eurasia, the University of Latvia was represented with six teams.

The team “LU 2” – Aleksejs Zajakins, Aleksandrs Zajakins and Kristaps Čivkulis – solved the greatest number of the exercises within five hours (10 out of 11) and for the second subsequent year became the champions of quarterfinals, leaving behind the strong 1^st team of Belarusian State University. So far, UL had achieved the victory in the quarterfinals twice – in 2005 and 2018.

“This year, the teams competing in quarterfinals began with a quick and successful solution of several exercises. The Belarusian teams picked up such a speed that could not be equalled even by our strongest teams, and the Belarusian State University (BSU) once again confirmed its position as one of the world leaders in preparing participants of sports programming competitions. This year, the BSU has set itself an ambitious goal of winning world gold medals. The 1^st team of BSU, made up entirely of gold medallists in the world’s school Olympics (in computer science, mathematics, physics), has made a strong start in all the competitions this year. This time they also took the lead. It looked like no one could take away their victory, however, the UL's strongest team gradually began to prove their strength and approached the leaders before the final hour, moving up to the 4^th place. 

During the last hour, participants and fans have a limited access to information, it is only known that the team submits solutions, but the result is unknown. Watching the solution posting activities 15 minutes before the end of the competition, it was clear that several teams are still in the race for the first place. After the end of the competition it turned out to be the most optimistic scenario – all the exercises completed by our team were assessed as solved, while the competitors had encountered failures. Thus, it certainly was a sensation, as everyone was convinced of a certain victory by the BSU team. The outstanding success of our team, which was achieved by fighting to the last minute!

We may celebrate this success for a moment, but it is only the first step towards the ultimate goal of entering the finals and showing our best there. Our two semi-finals teams have put in a lot of preparatory work over many years. The level we have achieved is such that we can look to the semi-finals with optimism,” says Guntis Arnicāns, a professor at the Faculty of Computing.

The second best result of the UL teams was achieved by the team “UL 1” –Aleksejs Naumovs, Ingus Jānis Pretkalniņš, Roberts Leonārs Svarinskis – by solving 6 exercises, they took the 14^th place.

“LU 5” team – Aleksejs Jeļisejevs, Maksims Pogumirskis, Dārta Rituma – performed well, solving 5 exercises, and was ranked the 21^st overall.

Team “LU 4” – Elīza Gaile, Ieva Pakalna, Ansis Zvirbulis – solved 4 exercises (the 33^rd place), team “LU 6” – Vladimirs Andrejevs, Anna Gžibovska, Aleksandrs Kozjutinskis – worked out 3 exercises (the 40^th place), while “LU 4” – also with 3 solved exercises but in comparatively longer time –ranked the 45^th.

The two strongest teams of the University of Latvia (“LU 2” and “LU 1”) will head to the semi-finals in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 29, where they will compete for entry into the finals, which will take place in Moscow, Russia in June 2020.

UL teams are prepared for competitions by Guntis Arnicāns, professor at the Faculty of Computing, and Jevgēnijs Vihrovs, a researcher. The UL researcher Jevgēnijs Vihrovs and student Andis Draguns also participated in the preparation of the exercises for quarterfinals.

The UL student team participation in the competition is supported by JSC “Emergn”, “eazyBI” Ltd., “Datakom” Ltd., JSC “RIX Technologies”, “TestDevLab” Ltd., “ZZ Dats” Ltd., companies of VISMA group in Latvia, “WhiteCryption” Ltd., Latvian community of the USA representing “Friends of the University of Latvia” (501 (c) (3) charity) – Honorary Consul of Latvia in Illinois Roberts Blumbergs, Honorary Consul of Latvia in Michigan Andris Lācis and Galenieki family. Donations are administered by the University of Latvia Foundation and the RTU Development Fund.

The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is the oldest and most prestigious academic programming competition in the world for students. This year the competition is held for the 44^th time. Last year, ICPC brought together 52 709 participants representing 3 233 universities from 110 countries. The quarterfinals and semi-finals of the contest take place in the regions on all populated continents, while the finals are attended by about 100 of the world's strongest teams. Until today, the University of Latvia has participated in the finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest five times.