Welcome!

Announcing the
ACM North Central North America 
Regional Programming Contest

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Overview

On Saturday, November 3, hundreds of contestants in the ACM North Central North America region (NCNA) will compete for "bragging rights" as top collegiate programmers. Teams at the "top of the heap" will advance to the contest's World Finals, where they will compete in a group of over 120 teams selected from international regions in a search for the best of the best!

The NCNA region includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Western Ontario, Manitoba, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and the UP of Michigan. If you are interested in showing how good you are -- or you just want to beat an arch-rival -- then get your team together and register!

As it is difficult to require all teams to travel to a single contest site, faculty and students at a number of schools across the region volunteer to operate their own contest sites. If your school or a nearby corporate sponsor would like to host a contest site, contact Charles Riedesel, the regional contest director, for details.

One or more of the top teams in the region will travel to the World Finals at Porto in Portugal, set for March 31 - April 4, 2019. It promises to be a memorable event for the participants!

Team Requirements

• Each team member must be eligible, willing, and able to compete in the World Finals, and be enrolled in a degree program with at least a half-time load (not meant to exclude students on co-op, exchange, internship, etc.).
• A team member must have begun college in 2014 or later and be born in 1995 or later.
• A team member may compete in at most two World Finals.
• A team member may compete in at most five regional contests.
• All members must be certified by the team coach.
• In some cases the coach may petition to extend eligibility. See the rules for team composition and appeals at the ICPC web site.

Registration

• Select the three students who will compete as a team. This is frequently done with a local programming contest, but the particular selection mechanism is not proscribed by the regional contest rules.
• Have a representative of the school serve as the team coach.
• The team coach will certify the eligibility of the contestants, serve as the official point-of-contact with the team, and ideally accompany the team to the contest site.
• Have the team coach complete the team registration procedure on the ACM web site. The coach should also register any reserve (alternate) team members and guests.
• Due to a gap in sponsorship funding, it is necessary for this NCNA Region to join the rest of the North American regions in assessing a fee. Each attendee at the regional will be charged $25 if registered by October 9. A late fee after that date increases the amount to $35. Fees will be payable through a PayPal link after the site director officially accepts your team. Do NOT pay before that time!
• Contact the director of the site at which you will compete for details on the contest environment (equipment, driving directions, parking, housing, etc.) and to verify the site can accommodate your team.
• Teams registering after October 9, 2018 may have reduced chances of being accepted, receiving a regulation contest t-shirt, but will be assessed a late fee. See Contest Schedule for details.