All UBC teams are pictured. Wearing their Canada site champion medals is the UBC team comprising (back row from left) Engineering Physics students Daniel Lu and Angus Lim; and Physics/Math student Paul Liu.
Finishing highest of all UBC teams, just behind teams from Berkeley and Stanford, was a proud accomplishment for Angus, Paul, and Daniel. Daniel recounts, “We had been practicing for the contest twice every week this term by solving problems from past contests in different regions. The course load for Engineering Physics makes it hard to spend lots of time on extracurricular activities, but the pleasure of solving problems and the free pizza makes it worth it.
I think this year we spent too much time practicing the easy problems and were inadequately prepared for the harder ones. That is why for the first hour of the contest, UBC Wrong Answer was in first place with five solved problems, but it took another four hours to solve two more problems, during which we were overtaken by the Stanford and Berkeley teams.
Overall, I think we did a fine job. Last year, Angus and I placed 14th in the regionals, so this time it is a huge improvement. I am optimistic that next year there is a good chance that a UBC team will make it to the world finals (although I will have graduated by then).
I encourage all students who are interested in programming and algorithms to join the UBC ACM Programming Club!
Past ACM regionals that the UBC programming team have been to are listed here.”
A fine job indeed! Well done!
More here.