Cuba Likely to Organize Intl. Programming Contest

Havana, Nov 7. -Cuba is the first candidate to organize the world finals of the computer programming contest (ACM-ICPC), according to sources from the Caribbean chapter of the organizing committee.Director of ACM-ICPC in the area, Dovier Antonio Ripoll, told Prensa Latina, though, that this is not for sure because organizational proposals for the contest, the most important for university students, are yet to be made.

"It is not absolutely certain at the moment, but it could be so around 2015," said the head of the Caribbean regional venue of the final held on Saturday in Havana, attended by 31 teams of 16 universities from four countries.

This time 11 Cuban universities took part, as well as three from the Dominican Republic, one from Jamaica and an other one from Costa Rica, exceptionally authorized to attend the contest in Havana and not in Mexico, which is the venue for Central America and one of the five in Latin America.

After solving part of the 11 problems contained in an English list of topics, the winner will go directly to the world final to be held on May 14-18, 2012 in the University of Warsaw, in Poland.

The movement, emerged in 1979 in Texas, is gaining momentum in the Caribbean, the most backward country in these contests that award four medals of gold, silver and bronze.

He said that in recognition of its organizational capacity and results (seding two teams last year to the finals in Orlando, the United States) Cuba won the right to be the regional venue with at least one place.

Now the most important thing is to lead in participation of universities, either local or from other countries, said Ripoll. (Prensa Latina)