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2009 Call for Participation

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is organized and conducted annually by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Started in 1970s as a local contest somewhere in Texas and then having grown exponentially in the number of participating universities each year. In 2007/2008, 6700 teams from 1821 universities in 83 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 in addition to a chance to meet with fellow students from other Universities in the region.

The contest is a two-tiered competition among teams of students representing institutions of higher education. The winning teams of this year's regional contests advance to the World Finals, hosted by Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China, February 2010.

The ICPC Arab and North Africa Regional Contest is a regional contest that started in 1998 and have witnessed significant participation in the past few years. Forty six teams have competed in The 2008 ANARC Eleventh Regional Contest hosted by Arab Academy for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Egypt. The last few years included teams from: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunis, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Outline of the Event

The 2009 Arab and North Africa Eleventh Regional Programming Contest is organized this year by The Arab Academy for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Egypt. The event lasts for three days.

Participants should arrive to Alexandria no later than the afternoon of Sunday 22/11/2009. The registration will take place on that day. The official opening ceremony will be held on Monday 23/11/2009. A technical session going over the rules of the contest will take place in the evening followed by a practice contest.

The contest will take place on the morning of Tuesday 24/11/2009. During the contest, a lunch buffet will be provided. The awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday night. If enough teams are interested, an optional social event including a trip to Cairo will take place on Wednesday 25/11/2009.

Contest Format

The contest lasts for five hours. Teams will be given a set of eight to ten problems to try to solve in JAVA, C or C++ using a single computer. Check this page to get an idea of the problems used in past contests and how to get students ready.

Contestants may bring reference materials such as books and manuals. Machine-readable resources, computers, mobile phones, electronic devices are not allowed in the contest hall.

Solutions are judged during the contest by running them on 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 the least total time. Check this page for details on scoring and ranking teams.

Each participant will receive a certificate of participation. Furthermore, IBM and local sponsors normally donates awards for the winning three teams.

Team Eligibility

A team consists of three contestants. Contestants must satisfy the following conditions:

1. Contestants must be willing and able to compete in the World Finals.
2. Each contestant must be a student enrolled in a degree program at the sponsoring institution and registered for the current term with at least half-time load.
3. Students who have competed in two ICPC finals or five ANARC regional contests are not eligible.
4. In addition, a contestant must have either been born in 1986 or later; or first began post-secondary studies in 2005 or later. A student who doesn't meet any of these two conditions may petition. See website for more details.
5. Each team designates a team coach (preferably not a contestant, preferably a faculty member) who will be the team representative and point of contact.

For 2009, each institution may participate with a maximum of two teams. A third team may be registered but approval is not guaranteed.

Expenses and Registration

The registration fee for this year is US$100 per team. This fee covers the team's coach, three contestants, and one reserve. The registration fee for anybody else is US$200 per additional person. This registration fee allows for the participation in the contest seminar and practice session, and all activities and meals offered during the contest. The registration fee must be paid in cash at the registration desk on Sunday 22/11/2009.

Useful Links

For more information about the regional contest in general, visit the ANARC permanent website.

For more information about the 2009 ANARC in Alexandria, Egypt; visit ANARC's 2009 website (which will be launched on 1/10/2009.)

For more information about the international contest, visit the ICPC website.

(Subscribe to the Announce Mailing List if you wish to receive future call-for-participation by email.)

We look forward to seeing you in Alexandria.

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