Overview

Outline of the Event

Team Eligibility

Contest Format

Expenses and Financial Support

Overview

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is organized and conducted yearly by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Started in the 1970s as a local contest somewhere in Texas and then having grown exponentially in the number of participating universities each year. In 2004/2005, 4259 teams from 1625 universities in 71 countries competed for the bragging rights of being the World's Programming Champions.

The ACM programming contest provides college students an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem solving and computing skills. Besides the fun of competing (and hopefully winning), the contest also provides an excellent opportunity for listening to well-known speakers and making international contacts in computing science. The keynote speaker for this year will be announced later.

The contest is a two-tiered competition among teams of students representing institutions of higher education. The winning teams of the regional contests advance to the contest finals, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas, United States of America in April 2006.

Overview

Outline of the Event

Team Eligibility

Contest Format

Expenses and Financial Support

Outline of the Event

The Eighth ACM Arab and North African Regional Programming Contest (ANARC) is organized this year by Kuwait University. The contest lasts for two days starting Wednesday Novmber 30, 2005.

Participants should arrive no later than Tuesday (November 29, 2005) evening. Registration will be at the Hotel premises on Tuesday. The official opening ceremony will be held Wednesday morning. Following the opening ceremony, we'll have the event's introductory session, presentation of the teams, and the presentation of the keynote speaker. There will be a welcoming lunch afterwards. Wednesday evening will be reserved for a practice session for contestants to get acquainted with the contest environment followed by a Q/A session (if necessary.)

The contest will take place Thursday (1/12/2005) morning from 10:00am to 3:00pm. The contest will last exactly five hours. Each team, composed of up to three students, will get a set of six to nine problems which they have to solve on a single computer, programming either JAVA, C, or C++. During the whole contest, a buffet will be provided.

The results and the celebration of the winning teams will take place on Thursday evening. A formal dinner is included.

We're planning at least two social activities in celebration of this event. On Tuesday evening, we'll hold the Third ACM Collegiate Arab and North African Bowling contest. followed by an informal dinner. Another activity is in the works for Friday morning.

Overview

Outline of the Event

Team Eligibility

Contest Format

Expenses and Financial Support

Team Eligibility

The rules for contestant eligibility have been revised by the ICPC executive committee. The new rules are described here. A local copy of the rules are available here.

A Team is made of exactly three students. A member of the faculty of the institution sponsoring the team must certify the eligibility of all contestants.

Each team designates a team coach (preferably not a contestant; and preferably a faculty member) who will be the team representative and point of contact before and during the contest.

Each institution may participate with a maximum of two teams.

Overview

Outline of the Event

Team Eligibility

Contest Format

Expenses and Financial Support

Contest Format

The contest lasts for five hours. Each team has to solve a set of six to nine problems on a single computer in JAVA, C or C++. To get an idea of the kind of problems, have a look at this problem set archive, which contains a large number of problems from past contests. Go to this page for more information on getting ready for the contest.

Contestants may bring reference materials such as books and manuals; but neither machine-readable versions nor their own computers or pocket calculators are allowed. Mobile phones are not allowed in the contest hall. Any team attempting to tamper the machines, or disrupt the contest environment in any way will be disqualified.

Solutions are judged by running them for some secret test cases. The contest judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of the submitted solutions; their decision is final. Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams who solve the same number of problems are ranked by least total time.

Each participant will receive a certificate of participation. Local sponsors are invited to donate awards for the winning team.

Overview

Outline of the Event

Team Eligibility

Contest Format

Expenses and Financial Support

Expenses and Financial Support

Each particpating team must pay a registration fee of US$ 100 at the time of the registration. This will cover the registration fees for the three contestants and their coach. A registration fee of US$ 100 is required for one reserve contestant (if any.) A registration fee of US$ 500 is required for any additional reserves, guests, etc.

This allows for participation in the contest seminar and practice session, and all activities and meals offered during the contest. The participation fee is to be paid in cash at the registration desk On Tuesday 29/11/2005. Teams who have registered but not paid the fee may not participate.

Kuwait University will cover the cost of accommodation of one team (a maximum of three contestants and a coach,) from each institute. In addition, Kuwait University will cover the cost of accommodation for teams winning in national contests.

We have a limited travel support grant. The only travel support we can offer at this point is US$ 500 payable upon arrival. The rules for travel support are:

1. Application for travel support is for institutes and not for teams: One travel support grant per institute.
2. The institute whose team have won a national contest will be granted a travel grant.
3. Priority is for institutes participating for the first time.
4. Priority is for countries whose Kuwait Airways travel cost to Kuwait exceeds US$ 350 per ticket.
5. Otherwise, it's first-requested, first-granted basis.

Since IBM is sponsoring all regional contests, you may request some financial support for your team by writing to your national IBM headquarters. Another source of financial support might be the ACM Chapter of your country, your university, or the private sector. (These are tips; we cannot guarantee that any of these institutions are able or willing to support your team.)

Overview

Outline of the Event

Team Eligibility

Contest Format

Expenses and Financial Support