UL Students win Bronze and Will Continue to World Programming Contest Finals

“The team “LU 2” (Aleksejs Zajakins, Aleksandrs Zajakins and Kristaps Čivkulis) had dedicatedly prepared for the competition throughout the last year, taking part in many training camps and online competitions. The team consistently improved its performance, which resulted in victory achieved in this year's quarterfinals in Minsk. Both the team itself and its friends became assured of a successful start in the world’s semi-finals, and the team should qualify for the finals without undue stress.

As a rule, “LU 2” started competition calmly and prudently. In the first hour, it rose to the 20^th place from approximately the 50^th it occupied at the outset. After another 2 hours, there was a lot of talk about “LU 2” because, as a surprise to many, it entered the leading group. After less than 3 hours, the team steadily occupied the 3^rd place. The UL teams had never achieved such a high position in the semi-finals before. However, the remaining four tasks were very difficult. Although fans of the team hoped that at least one task would be solved within two hours, unfortunately, this time it was not possible to come up with solutions.

The team “LU 1” (Ingus Jānis Pretkalniņš, Roberts Leonārs Svarinskis and Aleksejs Naumovs) started the race according to their abilities and after 1 hour and 45 minutes had already solved four tasks. Yet here the progress halted and there were no more successful solutions. Despite lack of success sin the second part of the contest, the team gained valuable experience. Next year, some of the team members will have to enter the UL's strongest team, as two members of the “LU 2” team will no longer be allowed to compete.

Overall, “LU 2” solved 8 out of 12 tasks, only 2 less than the winners. Moreover, among the teams that solved 8 tasks, “LU 2” showed the best time. It must be noted that the closest competitors from Belarusian State University solved Task 9 just 31 seconds before the end of the contest and thereby ousted our team from the silver medal position. Consequently, that the best ones are not that far ahead and the result is excellent. The guys are determined to prepare for an even better result in the finals,” says the coach of the UL teams, Dean of the Faculty of Computing, Professor Guntis Arnicāns.

The UL teams are prepared for competitions by Guntis Arnicāns, professor at the Faculty of Computing, and Jevgēnijs Vihrovs, a researcher.

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., VISMA group companies in Latvia, “WhiteCryption” Ltd., Latvians of America representing “Friends of the University of Latvia” (501 (c) (3) charity): the University of Latvia Honorary Member Roberts Blumbergs, Honorary Consul of Latvia in Michigan Andris Lācis and Galenieki Family. Donations are administered by the University of Latvia Foundation and the Riga Technical University Development Fund.

The International Collegiate Programming Contest, known as the ICPC, is the oldest and most renowned academic programming competition in the world for students. This year, the contest is running for the 44^th year. Last year, 52 709 ICPC participants represented 3 233 universities from 110 countries. The quarter-finals and semi-finals of the contest take place in the regions on all populated continents, while the finals involve about 100 of the world’s strongest teams. The University of Latvia has qualified for the finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest for the sixth time.