STOCKHOLM, April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Students from St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and Optics are crowned the 2009 ACM (ACM) (http://www.acm.org/) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) (http://icpc.baylor.edu/) World Champions in the Stockholm Concert Hall where the Nobel Prizes are presented every year. Sponsored by IBM (NYSE: IBM), the competition took place today at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) (http://www.kth.se/).

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO)

Referred to as "The Battle of the Brains," (http://www.ibm.com/university/acmcontest/) the ACM ICPC World Finals challenged the world's top 100 university teams to use open standard technology in designing software that solve real-world problems. Each team of three students faced 11 (http://cm2prod.baylor.edu/resources/pdf/2009Problems.pdf) problems of varying levels of difficulty, all modeled after real-world issues such as creating a schedule for an airport to safely land planes that allows for changing weather and other surprises and optimizing rush-hour traffic over collections of roads.

The teams were awarded medals based on the number of problems they solved correctly in the shortest amount of time. St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and Optics solved nine of the problems. The World Champions will return home with IBM prizes, scholarships and the "world's smartest" trophy.

"The complexity of global problems requires special skills and creativity," said Doug Heintzman, director of IBM software strategy and ICPC sponsorship executive. "The ACM ICPC finds the leaders of the future and exposes them to these challenges. IBM provides a global forum here and a real world at work for these bright minds to exert their capabilities in both engineering and management."

While in Stockholm, the students experienced local traffic many times, witnessing first-hand a smart traffic control system (http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/24414.wss) by IBM. Covering a 24 square kilometer area of the inner city, the system substantially reduces the traffic and encourages the use of energy-saving vehicles. It is a live example of issues to tackle when the students will step into the society.

At the ACM ICPC, a world technology showcase also brought students hands-on experiences with emerging technologies, which will help generate new ideas and build careers.

"Serious problems call for great minds and solutions demand a can-do spirit," said Dr. Bill Poucher, ICPC executive director and professor of the Baylor University. "They are athletes of innovation. They don't just measure up. They push the limits and have fun doing it. They pave the way to a smarter planet (http://www.ibm.com/SmarterPlanet)."

Tsinghua University in China, St. Petersburg State University in Russia, and Saratov State University in Russia finished the competition in second, third, and fourth places and all won Gold medals.

The regional champions are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (North America Region); St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and Optics (Europe Region); German University in Cairo (Africa and the Middle East Region); Universidad de Buenos Aires - FCEN (Latin America Region); Tsinghua University (Asia Region); and University Melbourne (South Pacific Region).

    
    This year's top twelve teams that received medals are:

    -- St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and Optics, (GOLD, 
       WORLD CHAMPION)
    -- Tsinghua University, (GOLD, 2nd Place)
    -- St. Petersburg State University, (GOLD, 3rd Place)
    -- Saratov State University, (GOLD, 4th Place)
    -- University of Oxford, (SILVER, 5th Place)
    -- Zhejiang University, (SILVER, 6th Place)
    -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (SILVER, 7th Place)
    -- Altai State Technical University, (SILVER, 8th Place)
    -- University of Warsaw, (BRONZE, 9th Place)
    -- University of Waterloo, (BRONZE, 10th Place)
    -- I. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, (BRONZE, 11th Place)
    -- Carnegie Mellon University, (BRONZE, 12th Place)

The 100 teams in the World Finals in Stockholm were selected from 7,109 teams of 1,838 universities from 88 countries on six continents. Since 1997, the IBM-sponsored ICPC has grown 800% in size.

The 2010 World Finals, sponsored by IBM, will take place in Harbin, China. The local host will be Harbin Engineering University (http://english.hrbeu.edu.cn/).

About the ACM ICPC

Headquartered at Baylor University (http://www.baylor.edu), the ACM ICPC is a global competition among the world's university students, nurturing new generations of talent in the science and art of information technology. For more information about the ACM ICPC, including downloadable photographs, and the complete World Finals roster and final standings, visit ICPC headquarters Web site http://acmicpc.org. A podcast series "Battle of the Brains" is at http://battleofthebrains.podbean.com. RSS feeds are available. For IBM's insights, visit www.ibm.com/university/acmcontest/.

About IBM

For more information on IBM software, please visit http://www.software.ibm.com.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For high resolution images and video, please visit http://icpc.baylor.edu. To interview IBM representatives or participants in the contest, please contact Meredith Setzman (msetzman@tierneyagency.com) at +1-215-790-4398 or on her cell phone at +1-610-283-5447. For high resolution images, please visit http://acmicpc.org.

    
    Media Contacts:

    Mark Guan
    IBM Media Relations
    +073-726-4317 (Sweden number for day of World Finals only)
    Sweden uses country code 46
    +1-914-766-1658
    markguan@us.ibm.com

    Tim Willeford
    IBM University Programs
    +1-914-766-3389
    twilleford@us.ibm.com

    Amanda Carl
    Tierney Communications
    +073-726-4588 (Sweden number for day of World Finals only)
    Sweden uses country code 46
    +1-570-236-4032
    acarl@tierneyagency.com

    Meredith Setzman
    Tierney Communications
    Office: +1-215-790-4398
    Cell: +1-610-283-5447
    msetzman@tierneyagency.com