Updated April 2, 2026
UT Austin’s Computer Science students continued to demonstrate their national competitiveness at the ICPC North America Championship (NAC), placing among the top teams in the United States and Canada following their standout regional performance.
Competing on March 22, 2026, in Orlando, the UT Programming Contest team placed 20th out of 52 elite teams from across the US and Canada, solving 7 of the contest’s 13 problems. The championship, hosted by the University of Central Florida, brings together the highest-performing teams from regional competitions across North America.
The UT team — Alex Chen (’29), Botao Yuan (’29), and Dylan Smith (’26) — advanced to the NAC after an exceptional 2nd place showing at regionals, where all four UT teams placed in the top seven out of 61 teams from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Their continued success at the championship level reflects both individual talent and the strength of UT Austin’s competitive programming ecosystem.
“We are incredibly proud of Alex Chen, Botao Yuan, and Dylan Smith for their strong showing at the North America Championship,” said Glenn Downing. “Solving 7 out of 13 problems and placing 20th against 52 of the top teams in the U.S. and Canada is a tremendous achievement. It is a true testament to their creativity, teamwork, and ability to perform under intense pressure. I also want to commend our outstanding Ph.D. coach, Trung Dang, whose dedication was instrumental in preparing the team for this stage.”
The team was coached by Trung Dang, a current Ph.D. student, with faculty advisors Professors Etienne Vouga and Glenn Downing.
UT Austin has competed in the International Collegiate Programming Contest since 1997 and has advanced to the World Finals six times over the past decade, with appearances in South Dakota, Beijing, Porto, Moscow (held online), Luxor, and Astana. This sustained success underscores the department’s leadership in preparing students for high-level computational problem solving.
A key driver of this momentum has been the department’s investment in competitive programming education. Since 2014, the elective CS104c: Competitive Programming — taught by Professors Vouga and Downing in collaboration with the student-led UT Programming Club — has helped equip students with the advanced problem-solving skills needed to excel in national and global competitions.
Founded in 1970 by the Alpha Chapter of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Computer Science Honor Society, the International Collegiate Programming Contest began as a small, regional initiative to challenge and inspire aspiring computer scientists. It quickly expanded across the United States and Canada and, by 1977, introduced its first championship round.
Today, the ICPC has evolved into a global, multi-tier competition connecting universities worldwide, with regional contests feeding into continental championships and ultimately the prestigious World Finals. Now operated by the ICPC Foundation, the competition is widely regarded as the premier stage for university-level programming—fostering creativity, teamwork, and advanced problem-solving under pressure.
Learn more about UTPC, the UT chapter of ICPC.