The European stage of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) saw the participation of three teams of students from the Faculties of Engineering (FEUP) and Sciences (FCUP) of the University of Porto, who managed to take three of the four best Portuguese places in the renowned university programming competition.

The South-Western European Regional Contest (SWERC) took place between 29 November and 1 December 2024 at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon. Three teams from U.Porto took part in the event, achieving a final ranking in the top half of the table out of 141 participating teams.

In the five-hour programming marathon, in which teams made up of three students focused on solving algorithmic problems and practical coding, ‘TSP – Tiny Silly Problem’ was the best Portuguese team, coming 32nd overall.

The group made up of students Marco Vilas Boas, from the Master’s in Informatics and Computer Engineering (FEUP), Félix Martins, from the Master’s in Artificial Intelligence (FEUP and FCUP), and Patrick Daniel, from the Master’s in Computer Science (FCUP), were the best Portuguese team at this stage, solving six of the 13 challenges proposed.

Following close behind was the ‘long long main’ team, made up of students Luís Barbosa, Luís Gonçalves and Sofia Sousa (all in their second year of a degree in Informatics and Computer Engineering at FEUP and FCUP), who also solved six of the 13 challenges and ended the competition in 49th place.

In 70th position, and closing out the top half of the table, was the third team from U.Porto, and the fourth at national level, the ‘Tasca Debuggers’, made up of FCUP students Pedro Correia, João Mendes and Hugo Cardante, who completed four exercises.

On the road to the ICPC

This competitive programming contest brought together teams from France, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, as well as Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City, and served as a regional qualifying event for the European Championship and the ICPC world grand final.

The participation of these three U.Porto teams is the result of their ranking in the Inter-University Programming Marathon (MIUP), where around 60 university students took part and were challenged to solve between nine and 11 complex problems, using the programming languages C, C++, Java and Python 3.

In a synergy of collaboration between FEUP’s Department of Computer Engineering (DEI) and FCUP’s Department of Computer Science (DCC), both at MIUP and SWERC, the U.Porto teams had the support of coaches André Restivo, a lecturer at DEI/FEUP, and Pedro Ribeiro, a lecturer at DCC/FCUP and director of the Master’s in Computer Science.

For André Restivo, the quality of the TSP’s work is being recognised and standing out at national level. ‘The TSP team’s participation in the ICPC Europe Championship, although it didn’t result in direct qualification, represents a well-deserved reward for the TSP’s excellent performance at SWERC, where they stood out as the best Portuguese team in the competition. Their presence at the EUC is undoubtedly recognition of the effort and quality of the work carried out by the TSPs throughout the year,’ says the FEUP lecturer.

New opportunity to programme ‘at home’

Tiny Silly Problem opportunity at the ICPC Europe Championship

From 28 February to 2 March 2025, the 2025 ICPC Europe Championship (2025 ICPC EUC) will be organised by the University of Porto, in what is the second championship of the European super-region, after the first, which took place in Prague in 2024.

TSP – Tiny Silly Problem will represent U.Porto in this competition, as a result of being awarded an extra place by the organiser, and for being the highest ranked team at SWERC. The team will thus have the opportunity to qualify for the next edition of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), the largest university computer programming competition in the world, whose Director will be Fernando Silva, a lecturer at FCUP.

The ICPC Europe Championship is organised into four competition regions: CERC (Central Europe), NWERC (Northern Europe), SEERC (South-Eastern Europe) and SWERC (South-Western Europe). These regions cover more than 40 countries and are home to more than 1,500 universities, including many of the world’s top-ranked universities.