UT Programming Contests (UTPC) teams delivered a standout performance at the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) South Central Regional Competition on November 8, 2025. All four UT teams placed in the top seven out of 61 teams from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
UT’s top team — Alex Chen, Botao Yuan and Dylan Smith — finished 2nd overall, solving 11 of the 13 problems to advance to the ICPC North America Championship on March 22, 2026. Coached by Ph.D. student Trung Dang and advised by UTCS Professors Etienne Vouga and Glenn Downing, UT’s strong showing reflects the program’s sustained commitment to competitive programming training.
Since 2014, the elective CS104c: Competitive Programming, taught by Professors Vouga and Downing in partnership with the student-led UT Programming Club, has been central to preparing students for contests at this level. The department has competed in ICPC events since 1997, advancing to six World Finals over the past decade, including in South Dakota (2016–17), Beijing (2017–18), Porto (2018–19), Moscow (2019–20, online), Luxor (2021–22), and Astana (2023–24).
The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), founded in 1970 and now the premier global programming competition, challenges teams to solve complex algorithmic problems under intense time pressure. Its multi-tier structure advances the highest-performing regional teams to the annual World Finals.
Full 2025 regional results are available here.
Learn more about UTPC here.