A bunch of geniuses came from all over the world to prove their talent by solving computer programming problems in Dhaka. In the presence of not more than hundreds but thousands of talented individuals, a brilliant example of a meeting fair was established by organizing the most prestigious international competition “ICPC World Finals Dhaka” with university students from different regions of the world. “ICPC World Finals Dhaka” of the 45th edition of “International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC)” was held on Thursday, November 10, 2022 at ICCB, Bashundhara, Dhaka.
In the closing ceremony on Thursday evening, the Minister of the Ministry of Planning of Bangladesh Mr. M. A. Mannan MP was present as the chief guest of the program. The Hon’ble State Minister for the ICT Division of Bangladesh Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP was present as a special guest of the event. Besides, Dr. William B. Poucher, President of the ICPC Foundation & ICPC Executive Director was also present at the Program.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Asia Pacific (UAP) Dr. Mohammad Alauddin gave the welcome speech. Before this, the Deputy Executive Director of ICPC & ICPC Director of World Finals Contests Dr. Michael J. Donahoo gave a congratulatory speech. At the end of the program, the Vice-Chancellor of UAP & Director of ICPC World Finals Dhaka Prof. Dr. Qumrul Ahsan gave the closing remarks. Among others, the Senior Secretary of ICT Division Mr. N M Zeaul Alam PAA and the Executive Director of BCC Mr. Ranajit Kumar were also present at the program.
Planning Minister Mr. M. A. Mannan MP said as the chief guest, we have hard-working people. We have about 12 million people now working all over the world who are working physically at work. They work in various fields and create wealth for the community where they work. That has opened a bridge to the world for us. The Planning Minister encouraged anyone who goes abroad to take appropriate education from there and come back to the country to take part in the development of their country. He added that We have been able to break the shackles of poverty to get the change. For the first time in our history, we have been able to attack hunger in the sense which has created confidence in the global community that we will be able to finally move into a middle-income country by end of this decade, and hopefully, our country will be able to move to developing country status by 2041. Finally, Mr. Mannan said that In that context working with our ICT division in this modern digital technology which will be our tool of change for the coming days is very important. We are providing a lot of investment funds for the people’s benefit.
The Hon’ble State Minister for the ICT Division of Bangladesh Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP said under our Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s premiership, we have experienced rapid social and economic progress. He shared that the GDP of Bangladesh grew by over 6% for a decade until the pandemic and also per capita income has increased from 500 US Dollars to 2800 US dollars over the past 13 years.
Mr. Palak also shared recent achievements of Digital Bangladesh. He said Bangladesh has made impressive strides in digitalization with the establishment of “Union Digital Centres” to ensure online government, commerce and banking services and enable internet connections for villages.
Mr. Palak said Bangladesh is becoming a rich nurturing ground for startups and new innovative ideas that are transforming the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem and also grips the most promising opportunity for venture capital investments for Startup Industry in the region.
He also said that We have a target to provide 3 Million jobs by 2025 and we would like to export 5 Billion Dollars from ICT sectors by 2025. In Partnership with the World Economic Forum, we have the plan to establish the Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution in Dhaka soon. Mr. Palak said that Bangladesh is currently enjoying the benefits of demographic dividends. From 150 universities we are getting more than 20,000 IT & ITES graduates every year. Finally, he said that our workforce is an economic powerhouse for Bangladesh as well as for the world.
Dr. Mohammad Alauddin of UAP said in his speech that the ICPC World Final is a celebration of the excellence of universities. This world final competition will serve as a live example and shining manifestation of what universities can do to uplift the world community. Finally, he was thanked for outstanding role in building human power in computer science and engineering.
President of ICPC Foundation. William B. Poucher said the ICPC has become a popular event. Every year participants from all over the world take part which is very important. He expressed sincere thanks to Bangladesh for the successful and colorful organization of the final competition in Dhaka.
During the competition, it can be seen that solving the computer programming problem increases the number of balloons next to the teams. Each team has one computer and three programmers. During the announcement of the results, the ICPC officials and judges gave a dramatic moment.
In the final phase of the 45th ICPC event, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the United States took first place as Champion by showing excellence. MIT won the 45th ICPC World Final Dhaka by solving 11 out of 12 programming problems in 5 hours. As per ICPC rules, the top four teams in the event get Gold Medals. Then fifth to eighth place teams get Silver and ninth to twelfth place teams receive Bronze Medal as awards.
By solving 10 problems, Peking University from China in Asia East won second place and The University of Tokyo from Asia Pacific also took third place by solving 9 problems and received Gold Medal. South Korea’s Seoul National University won the Gold after the top 3 teams solved 9 problems. The team was the first to solve a problem in 11 minutes. ETH Zurich of Switzerland, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris of France, Carnegie Mellon University of the United States and University of Warsaw of Poland i.e. a total of 4 teams have won Silver Medals.
Bronze was awarded to Northern Eurasia’s National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg State University, UK’s University of Oxford and Vietnam’s University of Engineering and Technology(VNU).
8 universities from host Bangladesh participated in the final round. Among them, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) got 51st place and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) got 56th place by solving four problems each. Besides, the remaining six teams get honorable mentions. These teams are: University of Dhaka ranked 82nd, Jahangirnagar University ranked 98th, North South University ranked 107th, American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) ranked 113rd, University of Asia Pacific (UAP) ranked 119th and Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET) ranked 122nd.