Taking place between January 23rd and February 4th, at Unicamp's Computing Institute (IC), another edition of the Brazilian ICPC Summer School, a summer school aimed at preparing university students for the global programming marathon International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). In the competition, which lasts five hours, teams made up of three students are asked to solve a list of different computational problems. The team that solves the most questions in the least amount of time wins.
Organized by Unicamp since 2012, the Summer School also features a class dedicated to preparing students who will participate in the Brazilian stage of the competition, organized by the Brazilian Computing Society (SBC). The event takes place over two weeks, from Monday to Saturday, and includes theoretical classes with leading experts in competitive programming, 50 hours of simulated programming problems and lectures with the meeting's sponsors, which, this year, includes the companies Vtex , Stone, Motorola, Eldorado, Rei do Pitaco, Alura, ProFusion and Via Consulting.
IC professor Rafael Schouery, who is director of the Brazilian ICPC Summer School, explains that the event aims to reinforce the teaching of topics such as algorithms, computer theory, mathematics and geometry, which most of these students learn in a more basic way in their respective courses. He comments that, in addition to the competitive and training aspect, this type of course brings a series of benefits for students, such as soft skills training, such as the ability to work in a team, concentration and control nervousness.
“But, from a slightly more pragmatic point of view, companies love people who participate in marathons, because they know that they are great programmers”, comments the professor. “So much so that many companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook make their selection processes very similar to these competitions, presenting a problem for the candidate to explain how they would solve, perhaps even writing some type of code on the board. We have former marathon runners in all the big techs in the world or even creating their own successful companies”, he reveals.
Despite focusing on university students who have qualified for the world competition or who will participate in the national stage, high school students who performed well in the Brazilian Informatics Olympiad (OBI) or the International Informatics Olympiad are also invited to the course. Informatics (IOI). The objective, according to Schouery, is to attract students to discover Unicamp and generate interest in the University, which, since 2019, has maintained an entry modality based on performance in knowledge olympiads.
To teach classes, the Summer School invites former competitors or very successful coaches. This year, the Brazilian class, which trains students at initial stages, has four national teachers, while students at more advanced levels, who are classified for the world championship or are national medalists, follow classes taught by foreign experts, in English. “We always try to bring in highly renowned teachers, who have performed well in international championships as participants or coaches, because we already train these students on a daily basis, so we need professionals who have a level of knowledge”, observes Schouery.
One of these people is the Polish Bartosz Kostka, who works as a software developer at Google Canada and was a high school teacher, leading his students to win 29 medals in computer olympiads. During Summer School, he covered topics such as algorithms, mathematics related to permutation and game theory, praising the students’ performance. “I really like that most of the classes are very interactive. The students share their ideas, ask questions and participate a lot”, says Kostka, who also commented on the role of these trainings in the students’ education. “They learn to cooperate with each other and expand their horizons, discovering a range of interesting problems that they can solve.”
Female presence
Aiming to increase female participation in competitions, since 2019, all students have been exempt from the registration fee for the Summer School. In addition, students who performed well in competitions can have their coming to the course financed, including passage, accommodation and food. As a result, while in 2019 only 8 women participated in the meeting, in 2023, this number rose to 45, of which 31 had all their expenses covered by the School or sponsors.
Another measure to increase their participation was the decision, by the marathon, to open an exclusive place in the Brazilian final for the women's team that had the best performance in the regionals. The 2022 winning team, which will participate in the final in March 2023 in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, is made up of three Unicamp students: Karyn Allyson Dassie Huamán, from Physical Engineering, Larissa Gomes, from Computer Science, and Yasmin Kaline, from Control and Automation Engineering.
The students say they have had very different experiences with programming in their lives. While Karyn She only learned about the topic when she entered college, Larissa was already programming in technical education in Electronics, but in a basic way. Yasmin, on the other hand, started at the age of 14, programming games and shortly after working with robotics during technical high school and participating in competitions such as the Brazilian Computer Olympiad.
The university students reveal that they only met on the day of the regional competition in São Paulo, through an initiative by the IC, which wanted to form female teams, and that this was the only competition they have participated in so far as a team. Despite the butterflies in their stomachs, they are confident that they will do well in the competition, as the Summer School has brought significant evolution to their daily lives. “It’s a very immersive experience. We stayed here all day, every day, from Monday to Saturday. It is very tiring, but at the same time we are learning so many new things that you can see our progress with each passing day”, concludes Larissa.
Worldwide competition
This is the first Summer School that Unicamp holds in person after the covid-19 pandemic, since, in 2021, the meeting did not take place, and in 2022, it took place online. In total, 200 students participate in the course, which received more than 350 applications from people from various Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, of which 25 are classified for the next edition of the world final, that will happen in Egypt.
This is the case of Frederico Bulhões, a computer science student at USP who is part of one of the teams classified for the world final. Frederico has been to the Brazilian final three times and once to the world final and says that he has participated in Unicamp's Summer School since 2017, when he was still a high school student competing in the IT Olympics and won the bronze medal in the international competition.
For students, world marathons are much more complex than computer olympiads, because they involve a greater challenge of interacting as a team and taking a test with more content. He reveals that, historically, Brazil has had very good results in these marathons, but that they compete with excellent universities from around the world, which makes it very difficult to win a medal. “Usually, there are the 15, 20 best institutions on each continent, so winning is very difficult. Therefore, our goal is not to compete to reach the top, but to train and do the best we can to win at least among universities in Latin America”, he explains.
Computer engineer André Amaral, who is a high school teacher and accompanies his OBI students at the Summer School, highlights that there are few training sessions of this type throughout the year, which is why he brings his students to the event. Although the focus of the Computer Olympiad is a little different from the programming marathon, with students competing individually, it has the same spirit and the same format of questions. Furthermore, adds the teacher, it is a time for them to work in groups and interact with each other, solving exam questions together.
Amaral was a teacher in the last two editions of the School and is also taking advantage of the event to attend classes given in advanced classes and learn from the experience of other teachers. However, he argues that, for the people present, the event is not only a time of study and learning, but also a form of fun. “The students who are here have a lot of fun solving programming problems. When we solve a question during a test, especially the most difficult ones, it is a huge feeling of joy. It’s a lot of fun, and that’s why we’re here on our vacation,” he assures.
