Optics students win IBM’s ‘Battle of the Brains’

Three students from St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) in Russia were named world champions at the 37th annual Battle of the Brains competition, hosted at ITMO and sponsored by IBM.

Photo courtesy of Randy Piland.

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest challenged 120 university teams to solve complex real-world problems under a five-hour deadline. The challenge was to solve the highest number of computer programming problems in the least amount of time. The contest exposed students to key emerging trends such as applying analytics technology to Big Data.

The St. Petersburg team successfully solved 10 problems in the five-hour period, winning The World’s Smartest trophy as well as awards and offers of employment or internships with IBM.