Aguascalientes, Ags., May 20, 2024.- The team of UP Solving team of the School of Engineering of our Panamericana campus AguascalientesThe UP Solving team from the School of Engineering of our Panamericana campus Aguascalientes, ranked number one for the second consecutive year in the renowned competition International Collegiate Programing Contest (ICPC) Mexico region in its 47th edition.
The world's oldest and most important programming competition
The ICPC is an algorithmic programming competition for undergraduate students from around 50,000 universities worldwide and is dedicated to solving real-world programming problems by encouraging collaboration, creativity, innovation and the ability to perform under pressure.
During the regional competition, the knowledge and skills of various teams of three people from different institutions were put to the test, where they had to solve 12 mathematical algorithm problems in a range of 5 hours; in addition, they have the limitation of only using a computer, which is why they must develop strategies to speed up the time.
"The UP Solving team managed to qualify to the world championship together with three other Mexican teams; this is an important milestone since there are 140 teams and they compete with renowned universities. In this regional participation we managed to be in the number one position in Mexico and we achieved a very good participation", says proudly Mtro. Ricardo Espinosa Loera, coach of the team.
UP Solving
Since they were 13 years old, Fernanda Sarahí Mancilla Núñez, Mechatronics Engineering student, Víctor Armando Jaramillo Moreno and Héctor Ricardo Ricárdez Lara, Artificial Intelligence Engineering students, have participated in programming competitions, however, they had always worked individually, so this competition was a challenge to test their team skills and solve real-world problems.
In their preparation for the ICPC, they used to meet every week to do a practice exam in the same format as the world championship, which lasted about 5 hours.
"It has been an amazing experience, to be with so many teams that are the best in the world, that motivated me and I would like to be able to place myself next to them," says Fernanda.
Although they had participated in this regional competition in previous years, this is the first time that the students participated as a team in the world competition.
"It is very gratifying to have been able to live this experience, because in order to qualify you need a lot of training and perseverance. And participating in this competition represents the end of everything I have done in my career," says Hector.
Once in the world competition, the UP Solving team spent 10 days in Egypt where, in addition to the competition days in Luxor, they also had the opportunity to participate in different recreational activities, as well as practice contests.
"I was proud to know that my hard work paid off to be able to reach this international stage and to be speaking at the level of other competitors from around the world fills me with pride and motivates me to continue improving to be a better programmer, a better student and a better person," says Victor.
It should be noted that participating in this competition is also a great opportunity for students to be recognized by the largest companies in the technology sector and subsequently offer them job opportunities.
"In addition to work, I notice that this competition has helped me to improve and develop my math skills, for example, I have also supported in the programming part of the robotics team and I think that thanks to these competitions, I have been able to solve those challenges and problems. It inspires me to think that I can solve more complex problems to help society", highlights Fernanda.
"As a coach, it was a very nice experience, the fact of being able to coexist with experienced professors and that there is visibility of our University, which year after year other teams identify us. It has been a very hard work that we have put into this competition, we have already become a reference in Mexico in competitive programming issues," says Ricardo.
It is important to mention that the Panamericana campus Aguascalientes has qualified for the sixth time to the world competition.
