UCI team wins a slot in international computer programming contest

Three undergraduate students from the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences have earned a spot in the finals of the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest, which is billed as “the oldest, largest and most prestigious programming contest in the world.” The UCI Constructors team, consisting of Michael Cappe, Nick Ajalat and Alan Castro and sponsored by computer science senior lecturer Richard Pattis, took second place in the ICPC Southern California Regional event Nov. 9 – UCI’s best-ever showing.  “I was bowled over by a second-place finish,” Pattis said. “These students did an extraordinary job.” They competed in a field of 91 teams from 31 colleges and universities from Southern California and Las Vegas, including perennial powerhouses University of Southern California, UCLA and California Institute of Technology. UCI Constructors is now among 120 teams invited to compete in the ICPC World Finals, which will be held in Russia in June 2014.