Just like the NBA recruits top basketball talent from the top teams that compete in the annual NCAA tournament, the world's top software companies will recruit the students taking part in this contest that was spawned in 1970. Also, there are a lot of confusing acronyms that confound newcomers. Indeed, IBM has sponsored this event since 1997, dubbing it "Battle of the Brains" and uses it as a recruiting mechanism, giving blanket job offers to the teams that finish in the top 10 -- and may other competitors as well.
Under Big Blue's guidance, the contest has exploded in the level of involvement and competition. There are regional competitions leading up to the world finals that 30,000 students and 2,2000 universities participate in. The 122 teams here at the University of Warsaw for this year's finals come from 85 countries across six continents (they're still trying to find an organizer for Antarctica).
The main event involves a gruelling, five-hour programming contest in which the teams of three students gather around a single workstation and solve problems. There are typically about 10 problems available to solve, which would normally constitute an entire semester's worth of work, yet the winning team will solve around 80 per cent of them in this brief period. The teams compete in close proximity to each other in a large, arena area, complete with a spectator booth and score board. The teams also collect a balloon for each problem solved, tying their visual bragging rights to their workstation.
The finals are a big deal. Last night the opening ceremonies held in Warsaw's Palace of Culture featured dignitaries such as the mayor of Warsaw, and Poland's president was scheduled to attend, but ended up sending a representative instead. The finals are even streamed live to the Web so spectators can cheer on their home team, and the broadcast production level is equal to that of many professional sports events. This year, viewers will be able to choose from multiple feeds to stream, including individual Web cams at each work station.
It's a real culmination of the best computer programmers in the world. Contestants are either Master's level in computer science, or some are senior-year undergraduate students. The sampling of talent is representative of upcoming worldwide talent pool for software programming, and allows us to take the pulse of the industry. Here's a couple of the trends apparent this year: