Tokyo Tech scores first ever medal at ICPC finals

Student team tonosama has won a bronze medal at the 2023 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals, held in Luxor, Egypt from April 14 to 19. This is the first medal won by Tokyo Tech at the ICPC World Finals. Team tonosama finished tenth overall, a result which earned them a bronze medal.

The 2023 ICPC World Finals included both the 46th and 47th contests due to postponements caused by covid-19. Although some changes had to be made to the timing and location of the event due to the continuing conflict in the Gaza Strip, top programming teams were carefully chosen from around the world to participate.

Team tonosama was selected for the finals based on their performance in the Asia-Pacific regional championships held in December 2022. They answered eight out of eleven questions in the finals and received special mention for being the fastest team to answer the questions in the 47th contest. Team tonosama also won first place in the ICPC Challenge, a supplemental contest held in conjunction with the ICPC World Finals.

A team from Tokyo Tech is aiming to compete at the next World Finals. The success of Team tonosama will contribute to the future development of programming education and encourage students to participate in international competitions.

The International Collegiate Programming Contest is a global programming contest in which more than 50,000 university students from 3,000 universities in 100 countries and regions participate each year. It is sponsored by the ICPC Foundation.

In the contest, three members from each university compete by solving a variety of problems, which can include anything from simple calculations to problems requiring a combination of multiple algorithms. Only one computer is available for each team, highlighting the importance of effective teamwork over individual programming skills. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least amount of time is the winner.

University teams first participate in national qualifying rounds and can advance to regional competitions based on their performance. In cases of Japanese teams, this means joining the Asian regional competition. Only the best teams in the regionals are selected to join the World Finals, which can only include one team from each university.