The winning teams pose with the panel of guests at the ceremony. PHOTO: STAR

DHAKA once again witnessed a battle of the brains as the first round of the Asia-regional Dhaka site of ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) 2004 unfolded at the North South University (NSU) on October 8.

Hosted by the department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) of the university, ninety-two local teams along with four foreign teams came under one roof to compete for the winning title.

'Aladdin', the team from Fudan University (FDU), China won the first position while 'Explorer' from Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (BUET) and 'SOC' from National University of Singapore (NUS) took the second and third positions respectively. NSU B team took the fourth position.

The contest was followed by a grand award ceremony in the evening on the same day at Hotel Sheraton chaired by Barrister Moudud Ahmed, minister of law, justice and parliamentary affairs.

Dr. Zafar Iqbal, chief judge of ACM ICPC 2004 Dhaka site and a number of noted high-level officials from BRAC,NSU and the Dhaka ACM ICPC 2004 organizing team were present at the event.

The remaining positions of the Dhaka site contest were taken by Trinity from American University in Bangladesh (AIUB), Bug from Indian Institution of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Pride from Khulna University of Engineering Technology (KUET), Apocalypse from Dhaka University (DU), Pointer from International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC), Sphinx and Loopers from BUET and Golden Amalgam from East West University (EWU).

Out of the total of 10 Asia regional contests, the Dhaka site contest was the first one held. The remaining nine will be held by the end of this year. Asked why teams from China, Singapore and India decided to participate in the Dhaka site contest even though they have regional contest sites in their respective countries, Dr Haque reveals that competitions are tougher at their sites than in Dhaka.

"Thus their chances for winning are much higher than our local teams. The winning team was almost sure that they were heading for the World finals," added Dr Haque.

Winners of the 10 regional contests plus 8 Wildcard teams chosen from the runner-up teams will move on to the 2005 ACM World finals to be held in Shanghai, China from April 3 to 7.

Host teams often have an edge over others to win the Wildcards positions. "NSU might have had the chance to join FDU in the World finals in Shanghai if they were among the runner-up teams," states Haque.

Yonghui Wu, the coach of the FDU team said his team is hopeful about the friendships his team made on their trip to Dhaka.

"Maybe someday these kids will come together and do something for the IT sectors of both countries," Wu added.

Wu revealed that the FDU team members received their training during their preliminary school years.

Regarding school training on programming language, Dr Haque recommends that the primary and secondary schools of Bangladesh play a ground role in building a new generation of cybernetic population.

"It becomes difficult to train students who come to the University without sufficient elementary knowledge from their primary education," states Haque.