UMD CS Team Achieves Best-Ever Finish at ICPC World Finals

The University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science reached its highest placement at the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals, finishing 14th at the competition held Sept. 4 at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The World Finals brought together 139 teams from universities worldwide that had advanced through earlier regional rounds. Nineteen teams represented North America, including those from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Carnegie Mellon University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The ICPC is regarded as one of the most competitive contests for university students in computer science. Each year, three-person teams share a single computer to solve algorithmic problems within five hours, requiring precision, speed and teamwork. Incorrect submissions or slower completion times result in penalties.

Maryland’s team of graduate student Danny Mittal and undergraduates Kelin Zhu and Sujay Konda, coached by Professor of Computer Science Mohammad Hajiaghayi with student Sam Lee as assistant coach, earned Highest Honors and placed third among the North American universities. The students, raised in Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey, advanced through regional contests before reaching the international stage. Hajiaghayi also received one of this year’s two ICPC Master Coach Awards, which honors coaches with a long-standing record of leading teams to the World Finals. 

It was the department’s best finish in the 49-year history of the competition, surpassing 23rd-place results in 2009 and 2010.

“These accomplishments reflect the depth and quality of our student talent, including past participants such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin,” said Hajiaghayi, who holds the Jack and Rita G. Minker Professorship and a joint appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. “I am honored to have had the opportunity to coach and collaborate with such talented students over the years.” 

UMD solved the same number of problems as silver medalists Harvard and MIT but ranked lower only because of time penalties. Every team above Maryland up to fourth place, including a gold medalist, all four silver medalists and all four bronze medalists, also solved the same number of problems.

The lineup shifted shortly before the contest. Mahdi Jafari, who was part of Maryland’s bronze medal run at the North America Championship in May, was unable to attend because of travel restrictions. Konda joined the team a month before the finals, leaving little time to prepare together.

“As a freshman and a substitute, working with upperclassmen was intimidating, especially since we had only one in-person practice before the contest,” Konda said. “Through our online practice contests we learned each other’s strengths and were able to pick the right problems. Overall, it was a really fun experience and I’m happy with the result.”

For Mittal, the performance capped years of involvement in competitive programming.

“It feels like the culmination of the time I’ve spent developing my problem-solving and programming skills,” Mittal said. “To put them to the test in the World Finals against some of the best in the world was a fulfilling experience, and I’m proud to represent the University of Maryland among those other schools.”

—Story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications