polaco's blog

By polaco, 10 years ago, In English

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?

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