ARMONK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/05/06 -- The most talented students of computing, from all corners of the world, will travel to San Antonio for the 30th annual World Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest, April 9-13, 2006. The ICPC is the world's most prestigious university competition in computing sciences and engineering, according to ACM.

More than 5,600 teams representing 1,733 universities from 84 countries on 6 continents participated in regional contests held last fall. The top 83 teams have qualified for positions at the 2006 ACM-ICPC World Finals championships.

The teams will be challenged to solve eight or more highly complex, real-world programming problems -- a semester's worth of curriculum -- under a grueling five-hour deadline. Programmers must tackle problems such as determining the best travel routes to minimize traffic and ensure cost-effectiveness, or developing a network strategy to determine the optimal placement of cell phone service towers to cover as many customers as possible. The team solving the most problems correctly in the least amount of time will emerge as ICPC champions, earning scholarships as well as awards from IBM.

IBM's sponsorship of the ACM-ICPC is an important component of the company's many academic initiatives, designed to stimulate open-source programming skills to develop a more competitive IT workforce capable of driving global innovation and economic growth. Contest participation has skyrocketed seven-fold since IBM began its sponsorship of the World Finals in 1997.

"This event offers collegiate programmers the opportunity to become familiar with Java, Linux, Eclipse and other open computing platforms being adopted by industries around the world," said Doug Heintzman, a Director of Strategy at IBM Software Group, and Sponsorship Executive of the ICPC. "Open source and open standards are driving the next great innovations in the industry, and this Contest challenges students who will be responsible for that innovation for decades to come."

As part of IBM's continuing commitment to IT education, the company provides academic institutions with free technology and software, as well as consulting on how to keep curricula current with the ever-changing industry.

"The ICPC World Finals is a wonderful platform for generating awareness of computing and problem-solving in our high tech world," said Dr. Bill Poucher, ICPC Executive Director and Baylor University Professor. "Through IBM's sponsorship and generous support, students have an opportunity to investigate and experience new technologies in the world of programming, resulting in the emergence of stronger, more gifted superstars. The World Finals helps us to shine the spotlight on these future IT leaders." The ICPC has been headquartered at Baylor's main campus in Waco, Texas, since 1989.

In 2006, 22 North American teams, including 17 from the U.S., will compete in the World Finals, along with 3 teams from Africa/Middle East, 7 from Latin America, 22 from Europe and Russia, and 29 from the Asia/South Pacific region.

The April 2005 ACM-ICPC World Finals took place in Shanghai, China, where Shanghai Jiao Tong University won the world championship.

The 2006 ACM-ICPC World Finals, sponsored by IBM, will be held at the Hilton Palacio del Rio in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, visit the contest Web site at http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/finals/default.htm.

APRIL 2006 WORLD FINALS TEAMS

North America

Binghamton University (Binghamton, NY)
California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)
DePaul University (Chicago, IL)
Duke University (Durham, NC)
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, MA)
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Rice University (Houston, TX)
Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (Rapid City, SD)
Stony Brook University (Stony Brook, NY)
University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)
University of Maryland -- College Park (College Park, MD)
University of Nebraska -- Lincoln (Lincoln, NE)
University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)
University of Wisconsin -- Madison (Madison, WI)
Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)
Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)

Africa and The Middle East

The American University in Cairo (Egypt)
Cairo University -- Faculty of Computers & Information (Egypt)
University of Cape Town (South Africa)

Asia/South Pacific

Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (Bangladesh)
Fudan University (China)
Fuzhou University (China)
Ho Chi Min City University of Technology (Vietnam)
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (India)
Indian Institute of Technology, Allahabad (India)
Information & Communications University (Korea)
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Korea)
Kyoto University (Japan)
Madras Institute of Technology (India)
National Taiwan University (Taiwan)
Peking University (China)
Renmin University of China (China)
Seoul National University (Korea)
Shahid Beheshti University (Iran)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China)
Sharif University of Technology (Iran)
Sichuan University (China)
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
Tsinghua University (China)
University of Auckland (New Zealand)
University of Adelaide (Australia)
University of Dhaka (Bangladesh)
University of Science and Technology of China (China)
University of Tokyo (Japan)
ZhongShan University (China)
Zhejiang University (China)

Europe

Altai State Technical University (Russia)
Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecom Paris (France)
Jagiellonian University -- Krakow (Poland)
Kazakh-British Technical University (Republic Kazakhstan)
KTH -- Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)
Lund University (Sweden)
Moscow State University (Russia)
Petrozavodsk State University (Russia)
Saratov State University (Russia)
Sofia University (Bulgaria)
St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics (Russia)
St. Petersburg State University (Russia)
South Ural State University (Russia)
Taras Shevchenko Kyiv University (Ukraine)
Technische Universitat Munchen (Germany)
Ufa State Technical University of Aviation (Russia)
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain)
University of Twente (Netherlands)
Ural State University (Russia)
Vinnytsia National Technical University (Ukraine)
Warsaw University (Poland)
Yaroslavl Demidov State University (Russia)

Latin America

Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica -- UNC (Argentina)
Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica (Brazil)
Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Universidad Autonoma de Tlaxcala (Mexico)
Universidad Central de Venezuela (Venezuela)
Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Colombia)
Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca (Mexico)

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers a wide range of middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the on demand era. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software home page at http://www.software.ibm.com.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery http://www.acm.org, is an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the 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.

CONTACT:
Laura Wessner
IBM
914-766-1366
wessner@us.ibm.com

Chris Murray
Tierney Communications
215-790-4359
cmurray@tierneyagency.com