The ITMO University students won in the quarterfinals of the competitions of the world programming championship ACM ICPC, which took place on the 8th of November in the main building of the ITMO University.

To compete for the right to represent their school in the North-Eastern European semifinals of the one of the most prestigious student competition - world programming championship ACM ICPC - 90 teams gathered in the ITMO University. They were from Arkhangelsk region, Leningrad region, Murmansk region, Novgorod region, Pskov region, Republic of Karelia and from Saint Petersburg.

The conditions of the quarterfinals are as close as possible to the conditions of the final competition: the participating team, consisting of three people, has only one computer and five hours to solve as many tasks as it is possible. There were 11 tasks.The ITMO University team was first to handle with these tasks. The team consisted of Gennady Korotkevich, Artem Vasiliev and Boris Minaev. The team solved all the eleven tasks with 1002 penalty minutes thereby winning the first place. Saint Petersburg State University won the second prize.The third team of the ITMO University (Vladislav Podtelkin, Ilya Zban and Ivan Belonogov) won the bronze.

Four teams will represent the ITMO University in the semifinal: the ones with prizes and the second and fourth teams. Both teams managed to overcome a quota on the number of solved tasks, set by the jury and thereby win a ticket to the next stage of the competition.

For over 15 years already, the ITMO University has been conducting the qualifying round for the quarter final of the world championship.To participate in the competition, those teams might be invited, who are from universities that train students in computer science and programming.Vladimir Parfenov, the competition director, and the dean of the Faculty of Informational Technologies and Programming, noted a significant increase in the number of teams and their training."More than twenty years ago, teams capable of representing their universities at this, high level of competition existed only in some universities.Within two decades, the situation has changed radically.Today 90 teams from leading universities of the city were involved in the competition.Traditionally, the main struggle was between the students of the ITMO University and the students of Saint Petersburg State University.At the same time, the team that won at our quarterfinal, subsequently often win the championship of Russia, and later the World Cup.That's how it was during the last three years.We were winners twice. Last year the team from the Saint Petersburg State University won the first prize.It is pleasant to realize that this year we won again.There is a hope that this tradition will continue.It should be noted that all the participants in the quarterfinals showed very good results and high knowledge in the field of information technology.And after all, all these guys will be at the head of our IT-industry in five or ten years".

The world championship of the team programming among students (ACM ICPC) started in 1977 and is now an important event for programmers around the world.For the first time the team from the ITMO University reached the final in 1996 and was a winner in 2004.Since then, the ITMO University has won the first prise several times: in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2013.Today, the ITMO University is the world's only five-time champion of the ACM ICPC competition. We hope that this year one of the teams of the University will be able to win the sixth cup.The summary table of the results of the quarterfinals of the competition is published on the website.