Programming championships at the University of Wrocław
Last weekend (5-7 December), the University of Wrocław hosted the Central European Regional Contest of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). The competition brought together 70 three-person teams from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland, all competing for qualification to the World Finals, which will be held for the fiftieth time this year.
In the University of Wrocław Library on the Grunwaldzki campus, teams worked for five hours on twelve problems prepared by staff as well as students and alumni of the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Wrocław.
The winning team from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary (Péter Gyimesi, Péter Varga, Bence Deák) solved 10 of the 12 problems.
Second place went to the team from the University of Warsaw (Jan Gwiazda, Stanisław Karpiejczyk, Jerzy Olkowski), while third place was taken by the team from the University of Wrocław (Krzysztof Olejnik, Olaf Surgut, Paulina Żeleźnik).
It is worth recalling that Paulina Żeleźnik of the University of Wrocław was also a member of the team that won the 29th Polish Academic Team Programming Championships (AMPPZ) on 16 November. For the first time in the 29-year history of the Polish Championships, the winning team included a woman.
The top two teams from the weekend competition in Wrocław qualified for the World Finals. The University of Wrocław team will compete for qualification during the European Championships held in early February in Warsaw.
“We are one of the universities — alongside the University of Warsaw and Jagiellonian University — that send strong teams to these contests every year. For this reason, organising another edition of the event is, so to speak, our duty,” says Dr Paweł Gawrychowski of the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Wrocław, Director of the Wrocław contest. “At the same time, it is an opportunity to present our university to a wide audience of students and their coaches from across Central Europe,” he adds.
How does Dr Gawrychowski assess the performance of the University of Wrocław teams? “Successful, and I hope to see their continued commitment in preparing for the European Championships. Those who have already ended their competitive careers I encourage to get involved on the other side — through organisational work for next year’s edition of the contest,” he adds.
Photo: Marek Materzok (UWr)
Date of publication: 9.12.2025
Added by: M.J.
