Congratulations to the ITAM students who qualified for the 2016 World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC) to be held in Thailand in May 2016, making this the first time that an ITAM team reaches the finals of this competition.

The students advanced to the finals after participating in the Mexico and Central America regional contest as members of the Románticos and the Brogrammers teams. Both teams qualified for that regional competition after competing with 240 teams from universities in Mexico and Central America. Eighty teams took part in that contest held Nov. 11 and 12 in Guadalajara.

Members of the Románticos team are Demian Espinosa Ruiz, industrial engineering and applied mathematics, and Freddy Román Cepeda and Diego Terán Ríos, both in computer engineering and applied mathematics. The team won second place overall, and it was the team that most quickly solved a problem. In just two minutes they were able to figure out the easiest of eight problems, assuring their qualification to the World Finals in Phuket, Thailand, May 15 to 20. The team is one of three from the Mexican and Central American region that will take part in the finals.

Members of the Brogrammers team are Miguel Ángel Casillas Maldonado, computer engineering, and Ricardo Lara Hernández and Jerónimo Aranda, both in computer engineering and applied mathematics. They placed 37th in the Guadalajara contest.

The ACM-ICPC is a programming competition dating back to 1970 and sponsored by IBM that identifies the best college programmers. The contest promotes teamwork and the quick solution to coding problems in languages such as C, C++ and Java.