It will take place during the month of November in Egypt. Since 2019 I have not accessed this instance.
La Universidad Nacional de Rosario He had an outstanding performance in the regional tournament and qualified after 3 years for the Programming World Cup that will be held in Egypt, at the beginning of November.
“Don Gato”, the UNR team that stood out in the qualifying round, is made up of Federico Bersano, Franco De Rico and Sebastián Mestre, who are Computer Science students. The team is coached by Mariano Crosetti and Brian Morris, who have participated in different World Cups and have vast experience.
The ICPC (International Collegiate Programming Contest) is the university programming competition that involves universities from all over the world. Last year more than 50000 students from 3000 different universities participated, distributed in 111 countries. “Again, the University accesses this instance, which speaks of the work done. Before it was thought impossible to qualify, so much so that on one occasion during a training camp they told us that it was impossible to beat the National University of Buenos Aires and Córdoba, who always led the local competitions. On this occasion, once again one of our teams came out in the top three in the region, so the growth is more than notorious”, argued Mariano Crosetti.
University teams have participated from 2015 to 2019 in the different world cups that have been held, being in 2016 their best performance when they won the Latin American championship. However, due to the pandemic and generation change, it has been absent in this instance, and this new achievement drives the return to the World Cup.
Qualifying for the World Cup was not easy, since during a large part of the competition they were at a disadvantage in relation to the other participants. “We never gave ourselves up for dead, but it is true that it was difficult. We started a bit slow, but we got 8 problems out of a total of 13, which gave us the classification. The problem was that for half of the test we had only solved two”, De Rico said.
The tests contain between 10 and 15 problems, but they are revealed directly at the start of the competition. “They are set up so that no single team can completely solve them all. Sometimes it happens, but the logic is that it doesn't come with time. They are given to us in random order, and the difficulty varies," Mestre explained, adding: "The team that solves the most problems wins, but in case of a tie, time is counted. So many times it is more convenient to solve from the easiest to the most difficult”:
This is a team competition and that allows problems to be divided. “Someone takes on a difficult problem and the others seek to solve others and then help them. We divided ourselves according to the confidence of each one and what we think at the moment, "Bersano explained.
This is where the experience that can be passed on to them by coaches, who have faced these challenges before, comes into play. “We advise them not to be afraid of the test, and if they are confident with one, that they risk it and trust everything they trained for,” Morris said.
In that sense, Crosetti added: “In this case, the strategy was already unorthodox and the boys took it to the extreme, so it almost gave us a cardiac arrest who saw everything from the outside. It is something that has worked for us in the past, it allows the nerves to decrease ”.
During the competition there is a position table that is updated in real time, where participants and attendees can see the progression of each team. “Many times, when looking at the table, one assumes that a certain problem must be done because other teams have finished it and it is not like that. Sometimes it is better to ignore that table of positions and get to work on what one thinks can come out”, Crosetti specified.
The UNR team had to be among the first three places to qualify, a task that seemed difficult due to how far behind they were compared to the rest. “We were very far, below number ten. In the last two hours we put in five problems, which allowed us to reach eight problems in total”, recalled De Rico.
“In the last hour, what we usually do is focus on one problem, but this time, yes or yes, we had to do two problems in that time. We had to take risks in every way: it was either do zero or do both. There was no halfway point, and this time it went well for us”, detailed Bersano.
The standings for the last hour disappear from public view, so the participants cannot know anything about the other teams. The same happens with the coaches, who from the outside lose track of the state of their coaches. “That last hour was terrible, we started to imagine many scenarios. Many of the other coaches told us that it was impossible for us to qualify because of the pace of the competition, especially because of the fatigue of the participants. Luckily the miracle happened, they put two problems in and we are in Egypt 2023”, explained Crosetti, obviously overflowing with joy.
Both coaches highlighted the team's commitment and the hours invested in their preparation. “It is a very solid team, which applies strategies very well, and adapts well to the conditions, which allowed us to qualify on this occasion. What remains is to continue training and aspire to a first half of the table in the world championship”, assessed Morris.
A committed University
“We are committed as a University to provide quality education, committed to its time. We continue to invest in the training of our students through the constant improvement of our study plans, the updating of our educational technologies and the promotion of extracurricular activities that foster their integral growth. We believe that our university community has a fundamental role in the future of our society, and we are proud to be part of this process of transformation and development", explained the rector Franco Bartolacci, adding: "Since 2019 our University did not have access to this instance and this year we classified, being together with the UBA, the only two Universities that will represent Argentina. I congratulate the whole team for qualifying, since together with their coaches they continue to put UNR well up there”.
“We want this not to be an isolated achievement of a group of students, but to be a constant and become a true tradition of our University. During the past year, a programming skills training cycle was created to prepare the students so that they can participate in the Argentine Programming Tournament and its subsequent instances”, explained Elena Gasparri, in charge of the Science Area, Technology and Innovation for development.
Mariano Crosetti is the teacher in charge of these training cycles and dedicates time to all those who want to develop in this discipline. “The classes are open, anyone who interests them can go. In 2015 we achieved the first classification of the UNR and of the province, and luckily several teams that followed us also achieved it. In recent years, this fact has not been repeated and that is why we did everything possible to return to the top positions”.
“It is an enormous joy, I had to follow the participants in this tour that was very valuable. In particular, I know many of them when they were kids, when they participated in the Mathematical Olympics, and it is very gratifying to see what they have been achieving”, valued Dante Zanarini, Director of the Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science that is taught at the Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying, and added: "It is very important for our career because very interesting groups and teams are assembled from within, and from the outside a visibility of it, highlighting its importance and growth of specialized training instances in computer science in recent years. ”.
Journalist: Gonzalo J. García / Photographer: Camila Casero.