The programming teams from HKUST once again achieved great success at the IBM DB2 UDB Inter-University Programming Contest this year. The contest was held on January 29 in Hong Kong.

HKUST sent five teams which made up of students from Computer Science & Engineering, Computer Engineering, as well as Economics for this year’s contest. Among them, the team comprising of Desmond Hung (Year 3), Qifeng Chen (Year 2) and Jueyi Wang (Year 1), all in Computer Science and Engineering, beat more than 30 teams from seven universities in Hong Kong and Macau and won the Champion Team Award. It proves their outstanding programming skills and excellent problem solving skills. Within a certain time limit, they successfully completed a series of questions to score the highest marks in the shortest time. The winning team received a cash prize of HK$30,000. At the same time, the five teams got the highest total scores that earned them the overall Champion University Award.

Team Leader Desmond Hung of the Champion Team said: “I am honored to receive the award. This is very encouraging for it proves the team work and problem solving ability of our fellow teammates. This contest was not only a great challenge but also a valuable learning experience. It enables me to have practical exposure outside the classroom which I believe would definitely help our future endeavor.” Desmond also wanted to thank Prof Wilfred Ng, the faculty coach and Mr Derek Hu, their postgraduate coach who were very supportive and had been their great mentors. The other two members of team were also very excited about receiving the award.

The contest aims to strengthen students’ capability regarding the DB2 database management system. Learn more about the contest on <http://www-07.ibm.com/hk/programming_contest_2011/>.