UH Hilo students place first in ACM Intercollegiate Programming Site Contest

Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Contact: Alyson Kakugawa-Leong, (808) 932-7669

For Immediate Release

A team of computer science students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo participated in the Association for Computing Machinery’s Intercollegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC) held November 16, 2024 and won the Division II site championship award. The contest began in 1977 and is considered to be the oldest and most prestigious programming contest in the world.

“This year 154 teams took part in the Pacific Northwest Regional representing schools from Hawaiʻi, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia,” said Dr. Keith Edwards, UH Hilo professor of computer science. “A total of 15 teams from UH Hilo, Hawaiʻi Pacific University, and Brigham Young University-Hawaiʻi participated in the Hawaiʻi site competition, which was held on the UH Hilo campus for the first time.

“Teams of three students had five hours and one computer to solve 10-12 complex programming problems,” he added.

UH Hilo’s Division II team consisting of Nolan Brophy, Carina de Pillis-Shintaku, and Melodi Harada Solmerin took home the site championship award. They also placed 41st in the Pacific Northwest Region.

UH Hilo’s team of Marianne Martinez, Sebastian Carter, and Joseph Winkie won the bronze medal.

“It was great to see everyone come together and spend a day working on problems regardless of who won,” Edwards said.

UH Hilo’s teams were coached by Edwards, Winston Wu, Allan Simeon Jr. and Ramon Figueroa-Centeno. Francis Cristobal assisted with technical support.

UH Hilo has participated in the contest since 2004.

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