Mission

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest is an activity of the ACM that provides college students with an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem-solving and computing skills.

Organization

The contest is a two-tiered competition among teams of students representing institutions of higher education. Regional Contests are held from mid-October through mid-November each year. Top-scoring teams from Regional Contests advance to the Contest Finals which is held in conjunction with ACM's Computing Week Conferences.

Rules for the International Collegiate Programming Contest are determined by the ACM Contest Steering Committee, chaired by the "Contest Director". The Contest Director is solely responsible for interpreting the rules and for ruling on unforeseen situations.

Each Regional Contest is administered under the direction of a "Regional Contest Director" who is charged with executing a Regional Contest within these rules and guidelines which have been approved by the Contest Director. Rules may vary from the Contest Finals Rules to accommodate regional differences in educational systems and host computing facilities.

Regional Contest Location and Attendance

1. The ACM Mid-Atlantic Regional Programming Contest, sponsored by Microsoft, hereinafter called the "Regional Contest" will be held on Saturday, November 11, 1995 at the following sites: Villanova University, Bucknell University, Old Dominion University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Delaware.
2. Contestants are drawn from the following geographical region: Southern New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and North Carolina.
3. All team members must attend all contest activities as specified by the Regional Director.
4. At least two (2) teams will advance to the Contest Finals. Each finalist team will receive a travel stipend to assist in travel expenses to the Contest Finals.

Contest Finals Location and Attendance

1. The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Finals sponsored by Microsoft, hereinafter called the "Contest Finals" will be held in conjunction with the ACM Computing Week, February 16-17, 1996 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
2. All team members must attend all contest activities as specified by the Finals Director. These activities include the Contest Orientation, Contest Finals, and the ACM Awards Banquet. Failure to attend any of the designated contest events will result in automatic disqualification and forfeiture of any scholarships or prizes.
3. All finalists will be provided travel assistance. The top six teams at the Contest Finals will be awarded scholarships of $15,000; $6,000; $4,500; $3,000; $1,500; $1,500, respectively.

Team Composition

These rules are written in U.S. English. Terms such as "baccalaureate degree" have different meanings in different countries. Team composition rules may vary at the regional level to accommodate these differences. Typically, contestants will be from 19 to 22 years old when competing in regional contests.

1. A member of the faculty of the institution sponsoring the team, called the "Faculty Advisor", must certify the eligibility of contestants.
2. The faculty advisor must serve as or designate the team "Coach" who will be the team representative and point of contact during Regional Contest activities.
3. A team is not eligible to compete in the Regional Contest until the Registrar has received all materials that certify eligibility from the faculty advisor.
4. Contest eligibility is determined DURING the academic term ending closest to the date of the regional contest. Graduation and degree conferrals occur AFTER a term has been completed, not during that term. Any questions of eligibility should be posed to the Contest Registrar.
5. Each team consists of up to three "contestants".
6. Each contestant must be a student enrolled in a degree program at the sponsoring institution with at least a halftime load. This rule is not to be construed as disqualifying co-op students on regular co-op activity away from the institution who are otherwise in good academic standing.
7. At most, one contestant of each team may hold a baccalaureate degree.
8. No contestant may have completed two years of post-baccalaureate studies or hold a graduate degree.
9. Students who have competed in two Contest Finals may not compete in a Regional Contest.

Conduct of the Regional Contest

1. At least six problems will be posed.
2. Problems will be posed in English. During the contest, all communications with contest officials must be in English. Contestants may bring electronic natural language translators that do not support math operations.
3. Contestants may bring resource materials such as books, manuals, and program listings. Contestants may not bring any machine-readable versions of software or data. Contestants may not bring their own computers, computer terminals, or calculators.
4. Solutions to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged as accepted or rejected, and the team is notified of the results. Rejected runs will be marked as follows:
• run-time error
• time-limit exceeded
• wrong answer
• presentation error
5. Notification of accepted runs will be suspended at the appropriate time to keep the final results secret. A general announcement to that effect will be made during the contest. Notification of rejected runs will continue until the end of the contest.
6. A contestant may submit a claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement by submitting a clarification request. If the Judges agree that an ambiguity or error exists, a clarification will be issued to all contestants.
7. Contestants are not to converse with anyone except members of their team and personnel designated by the Regional Director. Systems support staff may advise contestants on system-related problems such as explaining system error messages.
8. While the contest is scheduled to last five hours, the Regional Director has the authority to lengthen the contest in the event of unforeseen difficulties. Should the contest duration be altered, every attempt will be made to notify contestants in a timely and uniform manner.
9. A team may be disqualified by the Regional Director for any activity that jeopardizes the contest such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification of contest materials, or distractive behavior.

Scoring of the Contest

1. The Contest Judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the Contest Judges, the Chief Judge is responsible for determining the winners of the Contest Finals. They are empowered to adjust for or adjudicate unforeseen events and conditions. Their decisions are final.
2. Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams placing in the first six places who solve the same number of problems are ranked by least total time. The total time is the sum of the time consumed for each problem solved. The time consumed for a solved problem is the time elapsed from the beginning of the contest to the submittal of the accepted run plus 20 minutes for each rejected run. There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.

Contest Environment

1. The languages of the regional contests include Pascal, C, and C++. The languages of the Contest Finals include Pascal, Microsoft Visual C/C++, and the Microsoft Visual Basic Programming System.
2. Each team will use a single computer running a windowed Unix environment. All teams will have equivalent computing equipment.
3. All judging and problem clarification will be handled at Villanova University under the direction of the Chief Judge. Teams from each site will submit judged runs and clarification requests to the judges via the internet using software specifically designed for the contest.
4. Problems with local hardware will be handled by systems administration personnel under the direction of the Site Director and will be coordinated through the Regional Director to ensure that all teams receive equal treatment.

ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Contacts:

John Lewis, Regional Contest Director

     Villanova University
     Department of Computing Sciences
     Villanova, Pennsylvania  19085 1699
     Phone:  610 519 7348
     Email:  lewis@vill.edu

William B. Poucher, Contest Director

     Baylor University, PO Box 97356
     D/Computer Science
     Waco, Texas  76798 7356
     Phone:  817 755 3871
     Email:  poucher@acm.org

Lisa Ernst, Contest Operations Manager

     1515 Broadway
     New York, NY  10036 8002
     Phone:  212 626 0513
     Email:  ernst@acm.org

URL: http://info.acm.org