UBC Programming Team History

This page has a history of how the UBC teams did in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.

"CSx" means "xth-year undergraduate in Computer Science". "CS MSx" means "xth year MS student in CS".

NB: there are undoubtedly errors and definitely missing into in this; please help me fix them!

2008-2009

• Coaches: Anton Likhtarov (CS MS1) and Patrick Nguyen (CS MS2)
• WF (Stockholm): 34th
• Regional
  • 4th (advancing to WF with wildcard) -- UBC^: Chris Head (CS4), Robert Tseng (CS+Math4), Simon Suyadi (ENPH 5 coop)
  • 5th -- UBC*: Byron Knoll CS+CogSys5), Cedric Lin (Physics/CS3), Martin Lau
  • 25th -- UBC+: Jason Chang, Kenneth, Reilly Wood

Reserves: Andrew Tjia, Armand, Jason Kok, Joel Kitching, Kurt Mar, Mike Douglas, Terence Lin, Toar Imanuel, Valerie Ishida.

Note that Berkeley just barely edged UBC^, solving their eighth problem at literally the last minute of the competition. Stanford took first and second, so UBC was in strong shape for a wildcard berth -- which they got.

2007-2008

• Coach: Ducky Sherwood (CS MS3)
• WF: 23th place (Banff)
• Regional (detailed):
  • 1st -- UBC^: Anton Likhtarov (CS+Math3), Patrick Nguyen (CS MS1), Henry Wong (ECE MS2)
  • 2nd -- UBC*: Chris Head (CS3), Robert Tseng (CS+Math3), Simon Suyadi (ENPH 4 coop)
  • 10th -- UBC+: Sandy Robertson (CS4), Cedric Lin (Physics/CS2), Andrew Thomson (Math/CS5)

Reserves: George Stelle (CS4), Byron Knoll (CS+CogSys4)

Patrick competed in 3 regionals and one WF (tied for 19th place in 2006) for Simon Fraser University. This will be the first time since UBC started competing that all three WF contestants have already been to the WF once already.

The ICPC invitation letter says that in the 2007 Regionals, there were "over 7,000 teams competing worldwide and representing over 1,700 universities from six continents". 100 teams competed in Banff.

The UBC contingent was the largest in Banff (not counting the host U of Alberta). Thirteen went: all of the regionals competitors (except Sandy), Coach Ducky, alums Yury and IgorN, UBC grad student and "Assistant Coach" Nasa, and Ducky's husband Jim.

Four of the four competitors (Anton, Patrick, Robert, and Simon) who applied for summer jobs at Google got offers. Chris got an NSERC summer research grant. Cedric got a job doing research in the Physics Department. Henry (and Ducky and Nasa) continued working as graduate students.

2006-2007

• Coach: Matthew Chan (CS MS2)
• WF: 14th place (Tokyo)
• Regional: 1, 2, 7
  • 1st -- UBC^: Yury Kholondyrev (CS MS2), Anton Likhtarov (CS+Math2), Igor Ostrovsky (CS5 coop)
  • 2nd -- UBC*: Christopher Head (CS2), Robert Tseng (CS+Math2), Henry Wong (ECE MS1)
  • 7th -- UBC+: Simon Suyadi (ENPH 3 coop), Ryan Yee (CS4), Ying Yin (ECE 3)

Reserve: Elena Kholondyrev

Henry competed in one WF (tied for 19th place in 2006) and three regionals for University of Toronto.

After graduation, Matthew went to Google in Mountain View. Yury went to Bear Stearns. IgorO went to Microsoft.

2005-2006

• Coach: Bartholomew Furrow (Physics MS2)
• WF: 13th place (Texas)
• Regional: 1, 4, 14
  • 1st -- UBC^: Yury Kholondyrev (CS MS1), Wei-Lung Dustin Tseng (CS+Math4), Matthew Chan (CS MS1)
  • 4th -- UBC*: Igor Ostrovsky (CS4 coop), Roman Rudenko (CS MS1), Michael Chuang
  • 14th -- UBC+: Anton Likhtarov (CS+Math1), David Freedman and Mike Li
  • 4th team: Andrew Rothbart, Chris Head (CS1), and Ryan Yee.

Matthew Chan went to the WF (tied for 12th, 2005) with Hong Kong University.

After graduation, Bart went to Google in Mountain View. Dustin went to grad school at Cornell. Andrew Rothbart went to Microsoft.

2004-2005

• Coach Jonathan Backer (CS PhD)
• WF: 17th place (Shanghai)
• regionals: 1, 3, 17
  • 1st -- UBC0: Igor Naverniouk (CS MS2), Frank Pok Man Chu (CS4), Bartholomew Furrow (Physics MS1)
  • 3rd -- UBC1: Yury Kholondyrev (CS2), Keith Dunwoody, Siamak Tazari
  • 17th -- UBCX: Igor Ostrovsky, Ryan Yee, Alex Shyr
• reserves: Dustin Tseng, Mike Li

Bartholomew previous won a bronze medal for Queen University, 12th place team as an undergrad.

Frank Chu, coached by Igor N, went on to tie for 14th place in the World Finals in 2007 on the UToronto team.

After leaving UBC, Igor went to UToronto for grad school, then to Google. Frank went to grad school at UToronto, then to Google.

2003-2004 (first year to WF)

• Coach Jonathan Backer (CS PhD)
• WF: 15th (Prague)
• Regional: 1, 3, 4
  • 1st -- UBC0: Sebastian Kanthak, Markus Moll, Wolfgang Hess
  • 3rd -- UBC1: Peng Zhao, Mark Yen, (ECE), Tudor Costin, (Physics)
  • 4th -- UBCX: Igor Naverniouk (CS MS1?), Frank Pok Man Chu (Math/Computer Science), Andrew Rothbart

Reserve: Yury Kholondyrev (CS1)

(Wow, the UBC teams were all close together! Stanford kept them from a 1-2-3 sweep.)

Sebastian, Markus, and Wolfgang were all exchange students from Germany.

Peng Zhao competed for Tsinghua in the 1998 World Finals.

Jonathan Backer won a bronze medal for UAlberta, tie at 13th place in the 2000 World Finals.

2002-2003

• Coach: Darrell Lahey (CS grad student) and Jonathan Backer (CS PhD)
• Regional: 3, 29, 30
  • 3rd -- UBC 0: Zhao Peng (Grad CS), Igor Naverniouk (Math/CS4?), and Keith Dunwoody (UGrad, EngPhys)
  • 29th -- UBC 10: Brook Jones (UGrad, CS), Collin Chan (UGrad, CS, and Mark Yen (UGrad, ECE).
  • 30th -- UBC1: Frank Chu (UGrad, CS), Albert Jiang (UGrad, CS/Phys), and Alex Vostrov (UGrad, CS)

The WF was in Beverley Hills.

2001-2002

• Coach: Alex Brodsky (CS grad student)
• Regional:
  • 6th -- UBC1: Igor Naverniouk (Honours Math/CS3?), Stefan Pochmann (Grad, CS), and Wesley Terpstra (Ugrad, Honours Math/CS)
  • 7th -- UBC0: Keith Dunwoody (Ugrad, Eng. Phys), Warren Cheung (Ugrad, CS and Microbiology), and Darrell Lahey (Grad, CS)

Alternate: Ali Taleghani

The WF was in Honolulu.

2000-2001

• Coach: Alan Hu
• Regional: 7, 9, 11
  • 9th -- UBC 0: Albert Lai, Chung Ming Victor Cheng, Joseph Wong
  • 11th -- UBC 1: Darell Lahey, I-Gene Leong, Keith Dunwoody

The World Finals were in Vancouver.

1999-2000

• Regional: 10, 12

The World Finals were in Orlando.

1998-1999

• Regional: 6, 8

The World Finals were in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

1997-1998

• Regional: 5, 12

The World Finals were in Atlanta.

1996-1997 (started competing)

• Coaches: Alan Hu and Son Vuong
• Regional:
  • 4th place -- UBC A: Davor Cubranic (grad student), Wayne Hoy, Stephan Gudmundson
  • 6th place -- UBC B: Brett Allen and ?

The World Finals were in San Jose.

Davor got a PhD and went to work for Business Objects. Stephan did a MSc with Mike Feeley and Gregor K, worked at a startup (NetAcquire) for five years, and is currently at Google.

Photos

• Matthew, Yury, and Dustin in 2006