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Etienne Vouga

UT Austin Continues ICPC Legacy with Strong National Performance

The UT Austin Programming Contest team

04/24/2026 - 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.

This is Not a Bunny: The Research Path from Whimsy to Better Spacecraft Fabrication

Woven, lattice-like rabbit sculpture made of brown wooden strips, positioned on green grass with a soft, blurred background.

04/16/2026 - In Brief: A woven bunny sculpture showcases research using algorithms to design complex 3D structures from simple strips of material. Weaving makes objects stronger and lighter, but designing intricate shapes by hand is too complex to scale. This work uses computation to precisely map how each strip should intersect, unlocking repeatable, efficient fabrication. The approach could enable lightweight aerospace parts, custom medical devices, and new manufacturing methods.

Etienne Vouga Earns Regents’ Recognition for Outstanding Teaching

Etienne Vouga sitting at his desk in his office at GDC, wearing a black t-shirt and facing his computer.

11/11/2024 - UT Computer Science Associate Professor Etienne Vouga has earned a 2024 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award for demonstrating extraordinary classroom performance and innovative teaching. Vouga is one of 12 recipients this year from across the University of Texas System.

UTPC Team Excels at International Programming Competition

Students on the UTPC team (Left to right) - Ruoshi Dai (’23, M.S.) Jiawei Li (current Ph.D.), and Stanley Wei (’23, Turing Scholar)

05/06/2024 - This past month, UTPC competed at the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals hosted by the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in Luxor, Egypt.The competition consisted of teams from 124 regions (approx. 372 students) trying to solve 11 problems in 5 hrs. The first-place team, Peking University, solved 10 problems. The second-place team, M.I.T., solved 9 problems.UT solved 6 problems and came in 53rd place, 9th place in North America.

Understanding the Mathematical Foundations Behind Challenging Puzzle Design

image of a disentanglement puzzle. A blue square with a three by three grid with a red donut looped around one of the grid lines of the square. View from top and view from bottom.

02/01/2024 - Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and McGill University delve into the mathematical intricacies of wire puzzle design. Focusing on geometrical aspects, they establish criteria for puzzle characteristics, emphasizing the importance of a challenging experience. The team introduces quantitative metrics to assess tunnel-bubble structures, demonstrating their effectiveness in distinguishing puzzles from non-puzzles. Their findings provide a foundation for an optimization model, shaping the future of wire puzzle design.

UT Programming Team Wins ICPC Regional Competition for Fourth Consecutive Year

UT Programming Team won the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) South Central USA Regional Competition at Baylor University in Waco, Texas

11/11/2019 - On Sat, 9 Nov 2019, the UT Programming Team won the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) South Central USA Regional Competition at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The winning team, consisting of Aditya Durvasula ('19), Aaron Lamoreaux ('23), and Viraj Maddur ('23), will compete in the ICPC World Finals this coming June in Moscow, Russia.