The U.S. government's hostile policy toward Cuba was made evident once again when, on May 15, visas were denied for members of the University of Pinar del Río's team to participate in the World Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM-ICPC), held May 20-25 in Rapid City, South Dakota.
The team that missed the event, which has creatively named itself sUrPRise, includes members Elio Alejandro Aguilar, Manuel Alejandro Díaz Pérez, and José Guerra Carmenate, and is coached by engineer Luis Manuel Díaz.
The students were denied an opportunity to display their talent at the 41st edition of the international event, after having won the right to do so by placing 12th in the regional competition.
Given that an entire team has never been excluded from the finals, in the long history of the competition, in an unprecedented move, the ACM leadership is considering the possibility of offering the Cuban team direct qualification to the 2018 event, to be held to Beijing.
CUBA IN PROGRAMMING COMPETITION
The university level programming competition sponsored by the ACM is the oldest, most prestigious of its kind, and includes the participation of students from the entire planet.
The contest attracts the world's most talented young programmers, with participants from 44 countries attending this year, who will travel to South Dakota to test their knowledge and skills.
Participating annually are thousands of teams at various levels, all composed of three under-graduate students, plus a coach, who must solve a series of highly complex mathematical and algorithmic problems within a four-hour period.
Cuba began its participation in the competition in 2009, when a team attended the regional event, qualifying for the world finals held the following year, as explained during a press conference at the University of Havana regarding the visa denial.
Since then, Cuba has became a consistent leader in the Caribbean region, winning six gold medals, seven silver, plus the same number of bronze, in the regional finals, in addition to participating successfully in regional training camps associated with the competition.
These performances have earned Cuban universities prestige given the academic level and potential of young scientists studying programming here. Two teams qualified for the finals this year: sUrPRise, from the University of Pinar del Río, and UH++ from the University of Havana. Both won honors at the local, national, and regional events.
A+ for the University of Havana
For the first time ever in the regional finals, a Caribbean team delivered a perfect performance, solving the entire series of problems correctly, and winning the championship for all of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The impressive accomplishment, requiring the solution of ten problems chosen by judges, was achieved by UH++, the University of Havana team composed of students Marcelo Fornet Fornés, Ariel Cruz Cruz, and Eloy Pérez Torres, with MSc Alfredo Somoza Moreno coaching.
Marcelo Fornet Fornés, Cuba's best competitor at the regional level and a fourth-year Mathematics student at the University of Havana, learned of the injustice committed against the Pinar del Río team shortly before departing for the United States.
He commented, "We never expected that something like this might happen. We were taken by surprise. I think reaching this is very much to their credit, something that was accomplished not only by them, but by teams from all the world's countries, and I believe it is a crime that they're doing this to them. But I am very happy to hear that they may be compensated this coming year, as they deserve."
For his part, Alfredo Somoza Moreno, the team's coach and UH Mathematics professor, told Granma International, "It's an enormous shame. Very sad. Usually the ACM-ICPC movement has very strong relations. I thought things would function as they have at other times, but it appears that this time, it wasn't to be. I find it really shocking that they have denied the entire team visas. As far as I know, this is the first time."
