The Chilean Competitive Programming Training Camps
Every year, as progcompCL we organize the Competitive Programming Winter Camp in Chile (the acronym in Spanish, ICPCCL), with the collaboration of one of the main universities in Chile and sponsors of the industry.
Our goal is to both gather students with interest in programming competitions, such as ACM-ICPC and similar, from all over the country, and to encourage competitors to learn new techniques and train harder to become better programmers.
Each year the Training Camp has gathered about 80 undergrad students from the main universities of Chile in a 10-day school of algorithms, data structures and strategies for programming competitions. Since the first Training Camp in 2015, the level of our country increased substantially compared with previous years. Additionally, almost every year since, a Chilean team has classified to the ICPC World Finals with their performance steadily increasing.
The format of the Training Camp is as follows. Each day consists of lectures and problem discussions (morning), and programming contests (afternoon). The lectures are given by invited professors from different local universities or former World Finalists. The training camps are free of charge, and we offer travel grants for students who need it. We use all the sponsorship to finance travel grants and various expenses (mostly coffee breaks).
The first Training Camp (2015) was held in Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM), in Valparaíso, July 13-22, 2015. About 80 people attended from 13 universities and 2 high schools (students training for the International Olympiad in Informatics). Students attended from Universidad de Chile (UCHILE), Pontificia Universidad Católica (PUC), Universidad de Concepción (UdeC), Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Universidad Diego Portales (UDP), Universidad de Santiago (USACH), among others. The professors were Diego Arroyuelo (UTFSM), Francisco Claude (UDP), and Jorge Pérez (UCHILE), plus former competitors and World Finalists: Nico Lehmann and Rodrigo Alonso (currently working in a U.S. startup IntroLogic). The sponsors of that year were Microsoft, Google, Facebook and NIC Chile, while Facebook and Google sent engineers to talk about internship and full-time opportunities.
http://campamento2015.progcomp.cl/
The second Training Camp (2016) was held in Universidad de La Serena, in La Serena, July 18-27, 2016. About 65 people attended, from 10 universities and a few different high schools. Professors were Jorge Pérez (UCHILE), Diego Seco (UdeC), Nico Lehmann (IntroLogic), and Rodrigo Alonso (IntroLogic). Sponsors were Facebook, U-Planner (Latin American company, sent an engineer to talk about job opportunities), and NIC Chile.
http://campamento2016.progcomp.cl/
The third Training Camp (2017) was held in Universidad de Concepción, in Concepción, July 17-26, 2017. 89 students attended from 11 universities, including a student from Mexico, and a few different high schools. Professors were Juan Pablo Paulsen (UCHILE, former World Finalist), Felipe Contreras (UCHILE, currently working in Synopsys Chile, former World Finalist), Javier Marinkovic (UCHILE, former World Finalist), and Jorge Pérez (UCHILE). Sponsors were Facebook, NIC Chile, Synopsys Chile, and progcompCL (our organization).
http://campamento2017.progcomp.cl/
The fourth version (2018) was held in Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, July 17-27, 2018. More than one hundred students registered, including students from Bolivia and Colombia. Sponsors included Adessa Falabella, Microsoft, Synpsys, NIC Chile, and Botlab. Professors were Javier Marinkovic (UCHILE, World Finalist), Bernardo Subercaseaux (UCHILE), Pablo Messina (PUC, professor of Competitive Programming course), and Jorge Pérez (UCHILE, professor).
https://campamento2018.progcomp.cl/
We are a team of former competitors (Engineers, PhD students, professors) from Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Concepción, under the name of progcompCL (”Programación Competitiva en Chile”), who have been organizing the Training Camps and also the local Olympiad in Informatics for school students (the Olimpiada Chilena de Informática, or OCI). Some of us also helped organize the first Hour of Code event in Chile, in 2015.
Links:
Promotional posters: https://progcomp.cl/private/171569955344/tumblr_p553r955S11tz1zcd
Main site: https://progcomp.cl
Photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/progcompcl
Social media (twitter/fb): progcompCL
YouTube w/lectures: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmVg7YyMS8H-65WCmkVHB9g











