First Asia regional computing contest hosted in Hong Kong
27 - 10 - 2000

A total of 36 computer programming teams will compete in a regional programming contest first ever hosted in Hong Kong tomorrow (October 28).

The teams coming from different Asian higher education institutes will participate in the Asia Regional Contest, Hong Kong, 2000 of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest.

The contest is co-organised by the Association for Computing Machinery, Hong Kong Chapter and the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

"The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest is an annual international event and it is the first time that its Asia Regional Contest is hosted in Hong Kong," said the spokesman for the ITSD today (October 27).

"The objective of the contest is to invite Asian students to meet, to establish friendships and to promote fair competition in computer programming.

"The ITSD has been actively participating in organising this international computing contest with the aim of enhancing the interest and knowledge of local students in the use of information technology," the spokesman said.

The contestants of the Asia Regional Contest come from Mainland China, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Through participating in the contest, the students will have an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem-solving and computing skills.

"The programming teams, each comprising one coach and three students from the same university, will compete with each other on the accuracy of their solutions as well as programming speed," said the spokesman.

"Each team is required to solve six programming problems within the maximum contest time of four hours," he added.

The top-scoring team of the Asia Regional Contest will proceed to the World Finals which will be held in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2001 to compete with the winning teams of other regional contests.

The regional contest will be held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, tomorrow.

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