How do universities in your countries manage and support the ACM-ICPC? What motivates university students to compete in your cultures?
From what I see in my country, in general, the few people who are genuinely interested in competing and who do train wholeheartedly are those who already start higher education with a rich background in high school science competitions (IbMO and IbPhO).
The rest of the people generally start training and shortly after they either (1) quit and never return or (2) do just the minimum effort and become hesitant to train at another level. Some claim they don't get anything in return (as in scholarships or student discounts, etc.). So I wonder, what is it that motivates university competitors in countries such as Russia, Ukraine, China, Taiwan, Brazil? Are there extrinsic motivators involved? What would you suggest could be done in a small developing nation to propel algorithmic competitions such as this one?
I am not from the countries that you have mentioned, but It's like all in the life, if you are not competitive you get stuck.
My movitation for ACM ICPC was my infantilism. For my continued participation in competitions still same explanation holds.
In Ukraine all the pretty girls want to date you if you have high rating on CF or did well in ACM-ICPC. It seems to be the only motivation here.
I am not sure if this is a joke or not. Please confirm. lol :D
I bet you have just googled something like "plane to Kyiv" :)
In my country, Taiwan, students who competed well in IOI can admit directly to some well-known colleges without any exam. (maybe reach parent's expectation or self fulfillment)
Most competitors for ACM-ICPC are grouped from these well-known colleges and most of them have experience in IOI.
For average-level and low-level colleges, some students interested in algorithmic competitions may join together to practice for ACM-ICPC, but the number is very small (about 5-10 people for average-level colleges, 0-2 for low-level colleges).
I studied in average-level college, and I began learning how to program in my college, so I didn't have experienced in IOI.
I practiced for this kind of competition by my self. Most of my classmates have no interest in this. Almost all people who worked in IT industry in Taiwan think math, algorithm isn't useful. (In Taiwan, most industry doesn't put a lot emphasis on science research)
Most of my classmates think spending a lot of time to practice for this kind of competition isn't helpful for finding their jobs. (Because most of jobs in Taiwan didn't use algorithm)
They think learning how to make mobile apps, make business websites (solving real word's problems) is more practical than learning how to use algorithm to solve these algorithmic puzzles... :(
It's almost same for Siberian part of Russia, except 4-5 biggest towns where 1-2 universities and several companies making regional/local contests for students. Moreover, I have a quess that my words is true for other parts. For example, recently I've competed in CodeWars-hackaton of medic company (Elecard-med, Tomsk), there were some prizes (iPad Air, iPad Mini, MSI tablet, I took 4th place of course, damn).
There are also some big competitions like Siberian olympiad (in fact — Moscow, St.Petersburg universities, etc. are always here). And mb you've heard about Russian Code Cup, Russian AI Cup)
One more important thing is that we have some educational support. For example, my university organizes basic algotihmic courses for small programmers and mathematicians) And another good example is yandex.ru courses for students (school of data analysis).
Total: 99% of childrens who really interested in alorithmic competitions will be in high school someway (because of their achievements or exam results). 99% of high school students who really interested in algorithmic competitions can find something interesting.