Battle of the Brains

Doug Heintzman, Director of Strategy for IBM Software Group and Sponsorship Executive of the ICPC took some time to talk with podcast host Amanda Carl about the evolution of the Battle of the Brains. Doug discusses how the competition has increased in size by 800 percent and now reaches 88 countries, including Argentina, Iran, and Cuba since IBM’s involvement. How intense is the competition? Well, Doug answers your questions regarding the types of problems and the rigorous nature of World Finals. He even shares some fun and unique stories from his past visits to World Finals’ events and offers advice for student competitors.

Want to brush up on your problem solving skills? Practice problems are available—so get started on your World Finals preparation!

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Leader in the field of Autonomic computing and award-winning technology expert, Alan Ganek, sat down with ICPC podcast host Amanda Carl to discuss his day-to-day responsibilities and IBM’s commitment to a Smarter Planet. Chief technology officer and vice president for IBM Software Strategy and Technology, as well as IBM’s funding executive for the ACM ICPC, Alan provides valuable insight for Battle of the Brains participants as they prepare for regional competitions throughout the world.

An IBM Veteran, Ganek has more than 16 patents to his name and has been presented with a Technical Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and an Outstanding Innovation award from IBM on behalf of his work on Enterprise Systems Architecture/370 and System/390 Parallel Sysplex Design.

With Regionals already taking place in Asia and abroad, and the first U.S. regional to begin in October, Alan shares his advice on the best ways to prepare for the competition and a future career in technology.

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Ni Hao! Or for those of you still brushing up on your Chinese for the World Finals in Harbin, hello and welcome back!  As we gear up for the first part of this year’s competition, the 2009 ACM-ICPC Regionals, remember to check the Battle of the Brains page to find updates, podcasts and stories from past participants. The ACM-ICPC and IBM are working diligently to give you the latest contest information, including regional dates, winners and links to other relevant sites.

This year you can also follow us on Twitter, where you will find an open forum of participating students from schools around the world. We expect to kick off the 2009-2010 podcast series in the middle of September by posting an interview with Alan Ganek, chief technology officer and vice president for IBM Software strategy and technology.  Not only is Alan an outstanding scientist with 16 patents, he is the funding executive for the ACM-ICPC.  We’re all very excited to hear Alan’s advice for Regionals preparation and beyond. For those looking for some practice questions, look no further than past brain busters archived on the ICPC web site:

·    2009 World Finals questions

·    2008 World Finals questions

·    2007 World Finals questions

Try out a few of these to get your brain warmed up for the upcoming competition.  Good luck, or hao yun!

IBM special guest host, Chris Sciacca sat down with Ivan Romanov, 2006 ICPC Saratov University team member and former World Finals champion. Ivan, a current IBM employee at the IBM Zurich Lab, has been working on Mote Runner, a wireless system network designed specifically to address IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative.

Ivan discusses his preparation for the 2006 World Finals and shares valuable advice for the 2009-2010 competitors as preparation for the fall Regionals gradually creeps up.

Ivan was recently quoted in the Moscow Times discussing his experience.

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The Regionals are wrapping up around the world this month. The promise of the World Finals will come to 100 teams. Come January when the finalists are revealed, we’ll ramp up the podcasts again.

In the meantime, we’ve seen an overwhelming positive response from all the participating colleges and universities praising their students. Here are links to a few, but if your school did the same, we encourage you the post a comment with a link to the article and share your stories!

• CyberSecurity (Russia)
• Melbourne team headed for finals in ‘Battle of the Brains’ software competition
• Engineering students set for ‘Battle of the Brains’
• Let the Best Brain Win
• UCF team wins Battle of the Brains
• Students represent Millersville in ACM Mid-Atlantic regional collegiate programming contest
• UNL team to World Finals in International Collegiate Programming Contest
• Battle of the Brains

For many students participating in the Regionals, now is the time to build their resume, hit the interview trail and make in-roads toward post-college days or, in some cases, internship opportunities with future possibilities.

With this podcast, guest host Dana Procaccino sat down with IBM veteran Margaret Ashida, Director of Diversity and Workforce Programs, to discuss how the experience of this contest helps prepare students entering the job market as well as presenting the opportunities to showcase skills in front of future employers.

Good luck to those still looking ahead to the Regionals!

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As promised, Doug Heintzman, director of strategy, IBM Software Group and IBM’s Sponsorship Executive, spent some time with one of our podcast hosts, Mark Guan, to help get this 33rd year of the competition started.

Doug covered many topics including what teams he expects to reach the finals, what the contest brings to student, what makes the Battle of the Brains unique, and why IBM spends so much time working with students.

Good luck to those students participating in the first 2008 ACM-ICPC Regionals contest tomorrow in the South Pacific.

As a side note, as we build out this Battle of the Brains page, we hope to include more photos and stories to complement the audio podcasts we jump started last year. If you have photos or stories about your team, please send them us.

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Stayed tuned for the kick-off to this season’s podcast series. We have an exclusive interview coming with Doug Heintzman, director of strategy, IBM Software Group and sponsorship executive. For those of you who are new to the contest, Doug’s been a very big advocate for IBM’s role in the competition every year and takes a very significant role to work with ACM-ICPC to help it grow.

Welcome back! After a long summer, the 2008 ACM-ICPC Regionals are just about ready to kick-off on Saturday, September 13 in the South Pacific. Both the ICPC and IBM are in the process of updating their web site and hope students and professor alike will come and visit to get the latest on this competition.

With this Battle of the Brains page, we hope to include more photos and stories to complement the audio podcasts we jump started last year.

We expect to kick off the 2008-2009 podcast series in the middle of September with an interview with Doug Heintzman, IBM’s Sponsorship Executive. As many of you know, he’s been a big part of this contest for a number of years and has been a passionate advocate.

For those looking for some practice questions, look no further than past brain busters archived on the ICPC web site:

• 2008 World Finals questions
• 2007 World Finals questions