ETH team dETHroners wins SWERC 2024
Over the final weekend of January, two teams representing ETH Zurich took part in the ICPC Southwestern Europe Regional Contest (SWERC) held in Paris. Team dETHroners seized the SWERC title, clinching the gold medal with an impressive 11 problems solved. Congratulations!
During the last weekend of January, two teams from ETH Zurich, guided by coaches Ahmet Ala and Bernhard Linn Hilmarsson, participated in the ICPC Southwestern Europe Regional Contest hosted in Paris. The competition featured 108 teams hailing from 65 institutions across France, Israel, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. With more than 50 years of existence, ICPC is the premier global programming competition conducted by and for the world's top universities. It fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform well under pressure.
In a remarkable display fitting their moniker, the dETHroners, consisting of Theodor Moroianu, Paula Vidas, and Michal Stawarz, seized the SWERC title, clinching the gold medal and securing first place with an impressive 11 problems solved. This achievement marks a historic milestone for ETH, as the last first-place finish occurred 13 years prior.
“I participated in the ICPC contest for the second year in a row to connect and collaborate with students from my team, ETH, and other universities again. Aside from an awesome trip, this contest was an opportunity to meet people sharing the same problem-solving passion. For instance, we spent the whole train ride to Paris and back solving logic puzzles together.”Master's student Theodor Moroianu (part of the team dETHroners)
The doublETHink team, comprising Jasmin Studer, Christopher Burckhardt, and Ema Skottova, solved 8 problems, narrowly missing the bronze medal due to a minor time penalty. Furthermore, doublETHink was the pioneering team to solve problem J, while dETHroners achieved the same distinction for problem G.
The coaches Bernhard and Ahmet are members of the VIS Competitive Programming Committee (CPC), and they, together with CPC, organised a Local Qualifier at ETH in December to select the top 6 to represent ETH.
The outstanding performance has earned the team dETHroners a spot in the forthcoming ICPC European Championship in Prague this March and the World Finals in Astana this September.
Professor Dennis Komm, Dr Angelica Herrera and VIS have supported the teams throughout the whole process – from organisational matters to financial issues.
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Team dETHroners, consisting of Theodor Moroianu, Paula Vidas, and Michal Stawarz, won first place. -
Team dETHroners during the competition. -
Team doublETHink, comprising Jasmin Studer, Christopher Burckhardt, and Ema Skottova.