Newsletter No. 188

Information in this section can only  be accessed with CWEM password .  若要瀏覽本部分的資料， 請須輸 入 中大校園電子郵件密碼 。 2 No. 188 19th September 2001 CUHK Newsletter Programmin g Thei r Wa y int o th eWorl d Computer Engineering Students All Geared up to Win Internat ional Programming Contest A team of Year 3 students f r om the Faculty of Engineering clinched the championship title at the IT Contest 2001. The con t est was a w a r m - u p t o t he regional contest of the Association for Compu t i ng Machinery ( ACM), wh i ch is p r e l i m i na ry to the Wo r l d Finals — the 2 6 t h A n n u a l A C M I n t e r n a t i o n a l Collegiate P r og r ammi ng Contest, to be he ld i n Ho n o l u l u, Hawa ii f r om 20th to 24th Ma r ch 2002. The IT Contest 2001 was organized jointly by the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) of the Government of the HKSAR, Ho ng Kong Polytechnic University (HKPolyU), and the Ho ng Kong Chapter of A C M on 2nd June 2001 at the HKPo l yU. This year, there were 14 participating teams i n the IT Contest, among w h om f our came f r om the C U HK Faculty of Engineering — t wo f r om the Department of Compu t er Science and Engineering, one f r om the De p a r t me nt of Systems E n g i n e e r i n g a n d E n g i n e e r i n g Ma n a g eme n t, a nd ano t her f r om the Department of Information Engineering. T h e w i n n i n g t e a m , w h o c a l l e d themselves 'Me r cu r y ', consisted of four s t u d e n t s f r o m t he D e p a r t m e n t o f Computer Science and Engineering: Yeung Kam- wah (middle), L i Kw o k Ching (left 2), Gary Chan Chi-hang (right 1 ), and Ke l v in L i u Yun-kai (left 1). They were presented a cash prize of HK$20,000 at a ceremony he ld on 11th June at the HKPo l yU. Since the mid-1990s, students f r om the Faculty of Engineering have taken p a r t a n d e x c e l l e d i n t h e A C M I n t e r na t i onal Collegiate P r o g r amm i ng Contest (ICPC). I n Ma r ch 2000, a team, also f r om the Department of Compu t er Science and Engineering, came e i gh th place amo ng 60 f i na l i st teams i n the w o r l d f i n a ls h e l d i n O r l a n d o , US, ma r k i ng the first time a team f r om the t e r r i t o ry had ranked among the top 10 i n t h is c omp e t i t i o n. To keep u p t h is glorious tradition, 'Mercury' has to attain very h i gh r ank i ng at the A C M regional contest, wh i ch w i l l take place f r om mi d- October to mid-December this year. Th eAC M ICPC Regional s There w i l l be a total of six regional contests, to be held respectively i n Asia, A f r i ca and the M i d d l e East, Eu r ope, No r t h America, La t in America, and the South Pacific. Each region is further split into competition sites. I n the Asia region, for example, there are eight sites: Shanghai, Taipei, Singapore, Dhaka, Hakodate, Kanpur, Tehran, and Taejon. A l l contestants may apply to the contest of any site w i t h i n their region. Usually each site w i l l have approximately 20 to 40 participating teams, and the total number of teams i n all six regions w i l l come to we ll over 2,000. The top 64 teams (approximately 12 per region) w i l l advance to the wo r l d finals. Both the regionals and the wo r l d finals are sponsored by IBM. Last year, 64 teams of students f r om 2,700 teams representing 1,079 universities i n 70 countries on six continents competed for bragging rights, scholarships, and other prizes at the A C M ICPC Wo r ld Finals held i n Vancouver, Canada. Forma t o fth eContest s I n t h e H o n g K o n g c o n t e s t , p a r t i c i p a t i ng teams h ad t o solve six p r o b l ems i n g r a ph theory, geometry, combinatorics, constraint satisfaction, and simulations w i t h in four hours using e i t h e r t he C , C+ + , Java, o r Pascal p r o g r a mm i ng l a n g u a g e. The t eams submitted the p r og r am codes to a panel of judges, wh i ch comprised academics and members of the Ho ng Kong Chapter of the ACM, who w o u l d assess whether they were correct. The team wh i ch solved t he mo st p r o b l ems w i t h t he f ewe st p e n a l t i es was d e c l a r ed c h a m p i o n. ' Me r c u r y' solved the same number of problems as the first and second runners- u p f r om the Un i ve r s i ty of Ho ng Kong, b u t they w o n on accuracy w i t h f ewer time penalties. The regional and w o r l d contests are similar i n format to the local contest b u t the questions w i l l be more difficult and the contest time, longer. Trainin g an d Preparatio n H o w d i d the team prepare for the contest? ' They have been u n d e r g o i ng t r a i n i ng since the summer of 2000. The training is still ongoing as their aim is the w o r l d f i n a ls a nd n o t t he l o c al contest,' said Prof. I r w i n King, the team's coach and professor i n the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The department has been r unn i ng a systemic training programme for the A C M contest since 1996 as an extracurricular activity f or capable and i n t e r es t ed s t uden t s. S t u d e n t s are s e l e c t ed t h r o u g h a depa r tmen t al competition. Those w h o are invited to join the programme wo u l d be given problems to solve on their o wn and w o u l d discuss their solutions and p r o b l e m - s o l v i ng s k i l l s w i t h o t h er students one n i ght every week for t wo t o f o u r h o u r s . S t u d e n ts w h o h a d p a r t i c i p a t ed i n t he con t es ts i n t he p r eced i ng years w o u l d sometimes be i n v i t ed to relay t he ir experience and insights to their successors. Prof. K i ng s a i d t he s t u d e n t s are d r i l l e d i n p r o g r amm i ng skills, and h ow to make decisions on, for example, w h a t data structures or algorithms to use. 'To w i n, the students need, besides knowledge, skills for delegation of tasks a nd smo o th c o l l a b o r a t i o n, i n sho r t, interpersonal skills. They have to solve six problems us i ng only one computer. The c o n t e st i s a l so a t est o f t h e i r character; they have to k n ow h ow not to panic or stress wh i l e c op i ng w i t h the challenges of an unfamiliar environment,' he pointed out. Hurdle s t oOvercom e Besides, the c ompe t i t i on has been very keen i n recent years. Prof. K i ng gave several reasons for this. ' IT technology itself has raised awareness of the latest k n o w l e d g e a n d s k i l l s . T h e n e w g e n e r a t i on o f s t u d e n ts h a ve b e en b r ought up on computers; hence, there h a v e b e e n m o r e s o p h i s t i c a t e d participants i n the contest. A n d as the contest ma t u r es over t he years, the questions are getting tougher, the teams more well-prepared, and the competition more stiff. Our students w i l l really have t o k n o w a l o t m o r e t h a n t h e i r predecessors i n the 1990s,' he remarked. A p a r t f r o m ' M e r c u r y ' , t h e department w i l l be sending t wo or three mo r e t eams i t has been t r a i n i ng t o various contest sites i n Asia. The s t u d e n ts s a id t he g r ea t est difficulty i n preparing for the contest has been time. G i v en the ma ny demands, homewo rk and otherwise, on their time, their wee k ly discussion sessions often have to r un late into the night. It is worse for those r es i d i ng o f f - campus as they often have to rush to the train station to catch the last t r a in home. The students a l so f o r e s aw t i me a s t he g r e a t e st challenge i n p r epa r i ng for the regional contest as it may coincide w i t h their mi d- term or even their final exams. Wi nn i ng the A C M contests requires competence, ha rd wo r k, collaboration, and most of all, c omm i t me n t. But the students enjoy the f u ll support of their department. They have done well, as had their predecessors, and they are set to do w e l l . Be s i de s, w i n n i n g a s i de, t he exposure and experience offered by the contests s hou ld be w o r t h every b it of their effort. Piera Chen Prof. Irwin King • Personalia • 人事動態 • Personalia • 人事動態 • Personalia • 人事動態 • Personalia • 人事動態 • Personalia •