1. “We are the champions”: programming world champions from Russia
“We are the champions”: programming world champions from Russia. Why and what for?
Pavel Mavrin, Fedor Tsarev, Maxim Buzdalov
St. Petersburg National Research University of IT,
Mechanics and Optics
Computer Technologies Department
European Conference of Young Presidents Organization (
Moscow, , Ritz-Carlton Hotel

2. Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC)
Since 1979, sponsored by IBM
Became world championship in early 90-s
Team = 3 students + 1 computer
Over teams – 2200 universities – 85 countries
Multi-tiered competition:
260 Quarterfinals
30 Semifinals
World Finals (112 teams)
Medals are given to top 12 teams – 4 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 4 bronze medals
5 semifinals and 2 finals per student at most
World Finals 2013 will be hosted by University ITMO

3. Problem Example Contest lasts for 5 hours Problem set: 10-12 problems
Problem “Coffee Central” from ACM ICPC World Finals 2011
Coffee shops are located at some of the intersections

4. Problem Example
A person is willing to walk at most d blocks for the morning coffee
Example: d = 2
Write the program to find the location from which you can reach the maximal number of coffee shops for the morning coffee

5. Problem Example
Solution for the example – from best location you can reach 3 coffee shops

6. Russian teams on World Finals
World champions:
2000 – St Petersburg SU
2001 – St Petersburg SU
2004 – University ITMO
2006 – Saratov SU
2008 – University ITMO
2009 – University ITMO
2012 – University ITMO
Much more gold medals

7. 2004, Prague, Czech Republic University ITMO – 1-st place
MIT – 5-th place
Caltech – 7-th place
Harvard – 9-th place

8. 2004 World Champions

9. World champions 2004 and President of Russia Vladimir Putin

10. 2008, Banff, Canada University ITMO – 1-st place MIT – 2-nd place
Tsinghua (China) – 6-th place
Stanford – 7-th place
All 11 Russian teams are among top 30 teams of the world

11. World champions 2008 and St. Petersburg governor Valentina Matvienko

12. 2009, Stockholm, Sweden University ITMO – 1-st place
Tsinghua – 2-nd place
Oxford – 5-th place
MIT – 7-th place
Carnegie Mellon – 8-th place

13. World Champions 2009

14. World Champions 2009 with President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev

15. 2012, Warsaw, Poland University ITMO – 1-st place Harvard – 7-th place
University of Tokyo – 11-th place

16. World Champions 2012

17. World Champions 2012 and President of Russia Vladimir Putin

18. Why University ITMO is four times World Champion?
Computer Technologies Department was founded by Vladimir Vasiliev (now – rector) and Vladimir Parfenov (now – dean of the IT & Programming faculty) in 1991
Goal:
To find high school students performing best in mathematics, physics and informatics
To train them to be high-class software engineers
Competition-based education
Best coach in the world – Andrew Stankevich
Traditions

20. Secrets of Success Pavel Mavrin – don’t stop when you lose
Fedor Tsarev – find a good team
Maxim Buzdalov – do not rest on laurels

21. What happens after?

22. How business helps our department
Best students are invited to work in the university after graduating
Save the intellectual environment and traditions
Teach students
Do research
IT companies sponsor them directly
Save The Best initiative: savethebest.ru
Mail.Ru Group, Yandex, Yota, Transas, JetBrains, Speech Technology Center, eVelopers, DEVINO Telecom

23. Cooperation with ETH Zurich
21 Nobel Prizes
Never advanced to ACM ICPC World Finals before 2011
University ITMO:
Participates in ACM ICPC World Finals since 1995
Four times ACM ICPC World Champions
World Champions from University ITMO regularly come to ETH Zurich for trainings
Result – ETH Zurich team advanced to World Finals for the first time in the history
Establishment of Software Engineering and Verification Chair in University ITMO (head – Prof. Bertrand Meyer)
Davos Informatics camps for high-school students

24. Plans for the future Personal careers – a lot of opportunities
For the university – Gennady Korotkevich, programming prodigy from Belarus
5 gold medals at International Olympiad in Informatics for high-school students, 3 absolute first places
Highest rated coder at Codeforces and TopCoder
Now – first-year student of University ITMO
Hope to win two more World Championships 

25. Questions?
Contact information:
St. Petersburg National Research University of IT, Mechanics and Optics
Computer Technologies Department
Russia, St. Petersburg, Kronverksky pr. 49

26. Training for ACM ICPC in University ITMO
Coach – Andrew Stankevich
President of Russia Award in the area of education (2003),
Award for Great Contribution to Spreading ACM ICPC in Europe (2004)
Best Coach Award (2009)
Five hour trainings two times a week
About 70% of first and second year students of Computer Technologies Department take part in trainings
Special training camps in winter and summer in Petrozavodsk

27. Russian Olympiads in Informatics for high-school students
All-Russia center for Olympiads in Informatics at Computer Technologies Department
Individual Olympiad (ROI, IOI-style, since 1989)
Team Olympiad (ICPC-style, since 2000)
Internet Olympiads (
Team (ICPC-style, since 2005)
Basic level
Advanced level
Individual (IOI-style)
Basic level (since 2009)
Advanced level (since 2006)
CD “Programming with champions!” (yet – only in Russian)
Basic level of Internet Olympiads
50 problems with solutions
Personal testing system

28. Research at Computer Technologies Department
Bioinformatics
Algorithms for analyzing large amounts of genomic data
Genome assembly algorithms
Spin-off company “Cloud Genomics”
Software Engineering
Software verification
Automated programming using artificial intelligence and machine learning