Debug with a Cout, a team of extraordinary students from the computer sciences department, placed first in the regional round of the 2023 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Undergraduates Joseph Cai and Boying Li, as well as graduate Ivan Hu collaborated to execute the challenges in a timely fashion. This is the fourth year in a row that a UW–Madison team placed first in the regional competition, and the 14th year in the 22 years since UW teams started participating in 2001.
Representing their university, teams of three collaborate to solve real-world problems, challenging themselves to be innovative and perform under pressure. International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contests in the world.
Debug with a Cout will advance to the North America Championship in May, from which about 15 North American teams advance to the world finals. UW–Madison has advanced to the world finals every year since 2001, an achievement only our university can claim in North America.
Six teams from UW–Madison participated in the competition, with almost all members participating for the first time. While exploring their curiosity and pushing the limits of what’s possible, participants are able to reach new heights and gain confidence for other endeavors. Undergraduates Anton Cheng, Leos Nguyen and Kiet Pham, also known as team NonAutomatic Automaton, used their skills and placed fifth in the competition. Other UW teams placed 13th, 14th, 26th, and 29th among the 116 teams in our region.
Nitit Jongsawatsataporn and Mingrui Liu, two finalists from last year, were gracious enough to pass along their wisdom by coaching teams this year. UW–Madison extends its gratitude to Epic Systems for running this spectacular competition on its campus.