Team Fuchsia Moth in Kuala Lumpur: David Martin Cuajunco, Jose Enrico Tiongson, Kyle Stephen See, Hadrian Jules Ang, coach John Boaz Lee. (Photo from ateneo.edu.ph)

TEAM FUCHSIA Moth of the Ateneo Programming Varsity (Progvar) ranked 13th out of 54 participating teams at the regional level of the 2014 Association for Computing Machinery-International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC).

The team, composed of sophomores David Cuajunco and Rico Tiongson, junior Kyle See, and their alternate, junior Hadrian Ang, was the highest-ranking Philippine representative at the said competition.

The ACM-ICPC is a team-based programming competition with participating groups from across the world vying for spots in the regional and the world finals.

At the regional level, Fuchsia Moth competed against programming teams representing universities from all over Asia.

Team Fuchsia Moth finished seven out of 12 problems within the five hours of allotted problem solving time.

The team was accompanied by Information Systems and Computer Science Department Instructor John Boaz Lee as their coach.

The regional level was held at the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from October 31 to November 1.

The team comes fresh from their win at the national level of the ACM-ICPC, held at the Ateneo de Naga University on September 6.

Fuchsia Moth will compete again at another ACM-ICPC regional level to be held in Bangkok from November 14 to 15.

Catching up

According to the team, the Philippines has always lagged behind its neighboring countries in Asia but has been showing signs of progress when it comes to programming competitions.

“[Our finish at the regional level is] actually a bit bittersweet. It’s nice that I get to represent the country, but it also shows how far we’ve lagged behind the other countries,” See admitted.

Tiongson noted that Fuchsia Moth were underdogs coming into the competition as they faced powerhouses in programming competitions such as representatives from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore.

He said, however, that the team was able to compete for a rank alongside these programmers.

He added that their team is still very young, and it was their first shot at competing regionally.

“Our team has three more years to compete, [and] since our team’s performance will only increase with the passing of each year, I believe we have done really great in the broader scheme of things,” said Tiongson.

Updated on November 9, 2014 at 1:04 AM.