Teams from Four Universities Participated

In November, the Department of Computer Science hosted 13 teams for the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) South Central USA Regionals. Teams represented Lamar University, Rice University, University of Houston and the University of Texas at Tyler.

ICPC is an algorithmic programming contest for college students. “The competition provides students an opportunity to demonstrate and improve their teamwork, programming and problem-solving prowess,” said Dr. Nouhad Rizk, instructional associate professor and director of undergraduate studies. “It also allows students to test their ability to perform under pressure as they only have five hours to complete the problems.”

The very first competition was held at Texas A&M University in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon Computer Science Honor Society. The competition slowly expanded across the U.S. and Canada and eventually evolved into a multi-tier global contest under the auspices of the ICPC Foundation headquartered at Baylor University.

This was the first year for UH to host the event as a regional site.

“It’s good for UH to join efforts with other universities in the region to prepare students for real-life situations and set them up for a strong transition into the workplace,” Rizk said. “Our first time as a host school was a great success. We look forward to hosting again in the future.”

- Quentisha Puryear, Department of Computer Science