UCT team: Inconsistent Algorithms wins Technology Impact Challenge heats

This year saw 13 UCT teams participate in the team-based programming contest organized by Standard Bank, where only the winning team will go to the finals in August in Johannesburg to compete against the top teams of the other South African universities. While the finals will be different from previous years, the ‘heats’ qualifying round held last Saturday 6 May was the usual format of the IT challenge of previous years: teams of 3-4 students have to solve as many problems as possible within the four hours of the contest, with only one PC per team and no internet access. The team that solves the most problems, wins.

The first problem was solved in about 2 minutes by the UCT team ‘git gud’, consisting of Jonathan Alp, Jonathan Bouwer, and Zakariyah Toyer. Then the time-to-solve started to diverge and the teams’ positions in the running top-10—including the teams of the other participating universities, totaling to 112 teams—bounced up and down in the classification during the contest. At the time the scoreboard froze one hour before the end of the contest, four of the top-5 teams were UCT teams, with the other team from Wits.

The last hour saw frantic activity until the end. The final score that was released today has UCT taking the first four spots out of the top-5, including first in the overall classification. The top-5 performing UCT teams were:

1. Inconsistent Axioms, consisting of David Broodryk, Andrew McGregor, Yaseen Mowzer, and Bronson Rudner. They solved 7 problems, and were the only team that had solved 7 problems. Thus, they are the first UCT team and the first in the overall classification.
2. git gud, consisting of Jonathan Alp, Jonathan Bouwer, and Zakariyah Toyer. They solved 5 problems in the least amount of time, and came in second in the overall classification.
3. Super Badasses Trained in Coding, consisting of Robert Bodley, Oliver de Bruin, Guy Paterson-Jones and Cary Small. They also solved 5 problems and came third in the overall classification.
4. 404 team name not found, consisting of Claude Formanek, Matthew Morris, Jeremy Wilkinson, also solved 5 problems and scooped fourth position overall.
5. QWERTY is dead, consisting of JonJon Clark, Victor Gueorguiev, Tae-Jun Park, and Jason Smythe was the fifth-best UCT team, having solved 4 problems.

Normally, a special mention also goes out to the best performing team consisting entirely of first year students. As it happens, the Inconsistent Axioms is an all-1st-years team. It is probably a first in the history of the IT Challenge heats programming contest that a team of 1st years wins at UCT and in the overall classification. Very impressive performance indeed! David Broodryk, Andrew McGregor, Yaseen Mowzer, and Bronson Rudner will represent UCT at the national finals in August in Johannesburg.