Berkeley wins ACM International Collegiate Programming contest sponsored by Microsoft.

California, Berkeley team, Ben-Rudiak Gould, Scott McPeak and Amit Sahai, has won the 20th annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. Harvard University finished second and University of Waterloo finished third from a field of 43 other international finalists in this one-of-a-kind computing competition. More than 1000 Universities competed in regional competitions to progress to the finals held in the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Feb. 17, 1996.

The event was held as part of the Association for Computing's (ACM) kick-off of its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration and was sponsored by Microsoft Corporation. The contest pitted teams from Universities in the U.S., Europe, Canada and the Pacific Rim against one another in a five-hour battle of logic, and mental endurance. Each team had to create computer programs to solve as many as seven real-life puzzles in the least amount of time, with the fewest number of attempts. The top four teams completed six problems, however, the Berkeley team jumped to the lead with the least time on the clock.

Microsoft Corporation awarded a total of $31,500 in educational scholarships to be divided among the top six teams. In addition to the scholarships, Microsoft donated software licenses valued at an estimated $12 million (approximate retail prices) to the 1,000 schools that participated in this year's regional contests. They sponsor the event to highlight the achievements of students in the field of computer science. Events such as this will help to attract the best and the brightest students into the computer science arena, ensuring continued innovation, energy, and creativity. For more information about ACM or the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest visit http://www.acm.org on the World Wide Web. -0-

1996 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Finals

Place     University                     # of problems solved

1    University of California, Berkeley            6
2    Harvard University                            6
3    University of Waterloo                        6
4    University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski      6
5    Massachusetts Institute Of Technology         5
6    University of Queensland                      5
7    Albert-Ludwigs- Universitat Freiburg          5
8    Simon Fraser University                       5
9    Virginia Tech                                 5
10   University of Auckland                        5
11   The Hong Kong University of
     Science & Technology                          5
12   Comenius University                           5
13   University of Toronto                         5
14   Columbia University                           5
15   Carnegie-Mellon University                    5
16   University of Delaware                        5
17   Moscow State University                       4
18   California Institute Of Technology            4
19   St. Petersburg Institute of
     Fine Mechanics and Optics                     4
20   University of Missouri-Rolla                  4
21   Eindhoven University of Technology            4
22   Carleton College                              4
23   Coe College                                   4
24   University of Utah                            4
25   Swarthmore College                            4
26   Warsaw University                             4

Honorable Mention (alpha order not finish order)

Florida Institute of Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology, Louisana State University, National Taiwan
University, National Tsinghua University, Rice University, Shanghai
University, Texas Tech University, University of Belgrade, University
of Bucharest, University of Central Florida, University of Miami,
University of Nevada at Las Vegas, University of Saskatchewan,
Universitat Ulm, Wheaton College

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