ACM Regional Collegiate Programming Contest Sponsored by , AdaCore and Google Greater New York Region Sunday, October 29, 2006 Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY

Here are the major differences between this and last year's contest:

1. The Contest will be held on Sunday, October 29, 2006, at Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY.
2. We will have cash prizes for teams that do very well but do not win the contest. See the full rules below.
3. The programming languages and compilers used will be: Ada, gnat 4.1.1; C/C++, gcc/g++ 4.1.1; Java, Sun JDK 1.5.0_07.
4. Team coaches must register the team contestants using the ACM ICPC web site by October 1 (4 weeks prior to the Contest). Contact the Contest Director immediately if there are any problems registering. Coaches may register as many teams as they wish; however, not all teams may be invited to participate.
5. See the full rules below about registering guests. Note that the contest no longer recongizes reserves. Do not register them.
6. By October 2 (4 weeks less one day prior to the contest), the Contest Director will e-mail the coaches, telling them how many of their registered teams will be invited to participate.
7. Payment of $95 per team plus $30 per guest must be received by October 8 (3 weeks prior to the contest). Checks should be made out to "ACM Greater NY Region" and mailed to:
       Adam Florence
       5058 Sirron Ct
       Dunwoody, GA 30338-5654
   Teams may also pay by PalPal. Please email Adam Florence for instructions.
8. Teams may bring any printed material they wish, including books, language reference manuals, code printouts, contest problems and their solutions.
9. No electronic devices or media of any kind are permitted, including floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, calculators, pagers, cell phones, pagers, PDAs, memory sticks, mp3 players, and CD players.
10. Teams may withdraw from the contest at any time. Teams withdraw by notifying the Contest Director. However, refunds will be given only to teams who withdraw on or before October 8 (3 weeks prior to the contest).

Please read the rules that apply to every region. Please pay special attention to the new rules, which are in red.

In addition to the general rules, there are additional rules specific to the Greater New York Regional contest. In cases where the specific rules disagree with the general rules, the specific rules take precedence.

These rules may be changed at any time and without notice. Changes in the rules does not entitle any team to a refund.

Eligibility

The eligibility rules have changed. Make sure you read and understand the new rules. They can be summarized as: Students who began their undergraduate study in the Spring of 2002 or later are most likely eligible.

If you have any questions, or would like to ask for an exception, email the Contest Director. Note that all exceptions must be requested by October 1 (4 weeks before the contest).

Date, Time, and Environment

1. The ACM Greater New York Regional Programming Contest will be held from 9 am to 6 pm on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY. Contestants will have five hours to solve the six or more posed programming problems.
2. Contestants are drawn from the greater New York metropolitan area, including areas of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The portion of New Jersey in this Region is all schools north of I-195. There is no strict definition for the portion of New York or Connecticut included.
3. The site has a capacity of 73 teams.
4. The languages and compilers used are: Ada, gnat 4.1.1; C/C++, gcc/g++ 4.1.1; Java, Sun JDK 1.5.0_07.
5. Each team will be provided with two computers and access to all compilers and editors used in the contest. All teams will have comparable computing equipment.
6. The contest site will provide a printing facility that will be shared among the contestants. Printing will be done through the use of networked printing facilities shared by all teams.

1. Team coaches must register the team contestants using the ACM ICPC web site at least four (4) weeks prior to the Contest. Contact the Contest Director immediately if there are any problems registering. Coaches may register as many teams as they wish; however, not all teams may be invited to participate.
   Each school is allowed to register one coach. Each team is allowed to register three contestants. This means that if a school sends n teams, it registers a total of 3n+1 people.
   Schools may register additional people at a cost of $30 per person. This charge includes a t-shirt and food.
2. Four (4) weeks less one day prior to the Contest, the Contest Director will invite registered teams to participate in the Contest. This will be done by sending e-mail to the coaches.
3. Invited teams will be determined as follows: Of the teams registered by the deadline, teams will be invited in the order in which they registered, subject to the constraint that one team is invited from all schools before two teams are invited from any school, two teams are invited from all schools before three teams are invited from any school, etc. As many teams will be invited as possible, subject to the capacity of the site.
4. Coaches must send the registration fee of $95 per invited team plus $30 per guest to the Contest Director. Checks should be made payable to "ACM Greater NY Region" and sent to:
       Adam Florence
       5058 Sirron Ct
       Dunwoody, GA 30338-5654
5. Any team whose fee is not received at least three (3) weeks prior to the contest may be disqualified and lose their invitation.
6. Teams may, at any time, have their invitation revoked. Such teams will, of course, receive a full refund. This will only be done to make room for a school to send a team that previously did not have any invitations.
7. Team members not specified by three (3) weeks before the contest will receive the default t-shirt size of Large.
8. All teams must complete the required registration forms on the day of the contest. Teams that fail to complete the forms will be disqualified.
9. If any space remains after all teams which registered by the deadline have been invited, teams which registered late may be invited. Such teams must pay a penalty.
10. Teams may withdraw from the contest at any time. Teams withdraw by notifying the Contest Director. However, refunds will be given only to teams who withdraw at least three (3) weeks before the contest.

We are also continuing the additional cash prizes.

1. Let S1 be defined as the set of teams composed of only freshmen and sophomores.

   Let S2 be defined as the set of teams composed of only undergraduates, minus S1.

   Let S3 be defined as the set of teams with one or more graduate students.

   Notice that the three sets are mutually exclusive, and their union is all teams.

   Assuming that none of the sets are empty, each set will have a top team.

2. The team that wins the contest will necessarily be the top team of one of the three sets. As stated above, that team will advance to the World Finals. That team will win no additional prizes.
3. The top team from the other two sets may each receive recognition, a special certificate, and $300 ($100 for each team member).
   • If the Region sends one team to Finals: The top teams from the other two sets receives the cash prizes.
   • If the Region sends two teams to Finals:
     • If the top two teams are in the same set: Both teams will advance to Finals. Neither team receives the cash prize. Two cash prizes will be given out, to the winners of the remaining sets.
     • If the top two teams are in different sets: Both teams will advance to Finals. Neither team receives the cash prize. Only one cash prize will be given out, to the winner of the remaining set.
4. It is possible for a school to win the cash prize in multiple sets.
5. Coaches must bring a letter from their school's registrar office stating the academic level of each contestant. Contestants must bring their school ID, driver's license, passport, or other official identification. Cash prizes will not be awarded without documentation.
6. If one or more of the sets is empty, the Contest Director will decide what to do on the spot.

1. The Contest Director is responsible for appointing a Site Director and Head Judge for the contest, and is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the contest.
2. The Site Director is responsible for all local contest arrangements, including the solicitation of on-site volunteers, procurement of rooms and equipment (including backup systems), and so forth. The Site Director will conduct a meeting with the contestants prior to the start of the contest to reiterate the contest procedures and explain any site-specific policies, and will distribute the official contest results to all teams that participate in the contest.
3. The Head Judge is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the judging effort. The Head Judge will explain the judging procedures and work with the other judges to distribute the contest judging and record-keeping responsibilities.

1. At least six problems will be posed.
2. Each team must have a faculty advisor and a coach, who may or may not be the same person. The coach need not be a member of the faculty. The faculty advisor needs to be able to verify the eligibility of the contestants on the team. The coach must accompany the team to the contest.
3. Coaches and guests will have no contact with their teams during the contest. The penalty for contact is immediate disqualification of all teams from that school.
4. Coaches will receive a copy of the problems once the contest has begun. If a coach suspects any ambiguity in the problem statements, he or she must report this to the Contest Director for an immediate ruling.
5. If the Contest Director or Head Judge decides that a clarification is necessary, the Site Director will disseminate this information to all teams.
6. The Contest Director, Site Director(s), the Head Judge, and the pool of team coaches present serve as the final authority for resolving all local contest matters.
7. No penalties will be assessed for obtaining printed listings during the contest. Local procedures for obtaining a listing will be explained by the Site Coordinator during the meeting of the contestants.
8. Everyone who attends the contest gives permission to the Region and any organization it designates to use their likenesses in electronic and physical publications.

1. Submission of problems will be electronic, with PC^2 version 8.7. Please read the Contestant's Guide.
2. In the event that PC^2 fails, we will use manual submission using floppy disks. Floppy disks will be provided.

1. The team coaches will serve as judges, and will keep the local contest records. Schools without a team coach in attendance will have no input in the contest judging decisions; these teams agree to be bound by the judging decisions of the team coaches attending.
2. Teams will not be given the test input files that the judges will use to determine program correctness.
3. Solutions to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged as correct or incorrect, and the team is notified of the results. Incorrect runs will be marked with one of the following comments. They are listed in decreasing order of severity.
   1. file naming error: The file naming convention was not followed. Either the submission was incorrectly named, or the program did not read from / write to the correctly named file.
   2. compile error: The program did not compile.
   3. run-time error: The program did not run to completion.
   4. wrong answer: This means that the program compiled and ran, but produced incorrect output.
   5. time limit exceeded: The program did not finish executing within the 2 minute time limit.
   6. presentation error: The output was nominally correct, but was not in the correct format.
4. The Contest Judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the Contest Judges, the Chief Judge is responsible for determining the winners of the contest. They are empowered to adjust for or adjudicate unforeseen events and conditions. Their decisions are final.
5. The final contest results will be announced following the contest by the Contest Director, Site Director, or Head Judge.
6. Although they are unlikely, the Contest Director will resolve ties by examining the quality of submitted solutions and number of incorrect submissions.

Last modified 2 October 2006. Please email with comments, questions, or corrections.