ACM Boston Preliminary (BOSPRE 2018)
Programming Contest Home Page
University of Rhode Island Host Site for BOSPRE 2018
IMPORTANT: Teams MUST register by 12noon Sunday Oct 7, so we can
assign teams to host sites. If you want to delete a registered
team, do so before then by changing its name to `Please Delete'.
You must bring and use your own laptop(s). Workstations will NOT
be provided.
The laptop you use for your contest account terminal CANNOT be
used to browse the web.
You may use a SECOND laptop to browse
the web but CANNOT access the contest account from this second
laptop.
You can bring mice and keyboards for your laptops, but NOT
displays.
A `live usb' operating system,
BOSPRE USB,
is provided
for you to use on both the terminal and web browsing laptops.
University of Connecticut Host Site for BOSPRE 2018
For Team Members
IMPORTANT: STUDENT REGISTRATION RULE: ACM requires that each individual
team member have COMPLETED their registration at the
ACM Programming Contest web site
BEFORE the team comes to BOSPRE 2018! Log into icpc.baylor.edu
using the email address that your coach used to identify you when
she/he added you to the team.
LAPTOP TESTING: When a team gets its practice account from its coach,
it must test its laptops to be sure they work with this account.
Then when the team gets its contest account a few days before BOSPRE,
it must re-test with the contest account BEFORE coming to BOSPRE.
If the team's coach wants the team to use BOSPRE USB (see above),
the team should test with their laptops running BOSPRE USB.
Teams that may go to regionals should use BOSPRE USB if it works
on their laptops.
REQUIRED READING:
Each member of each team, BEFORE the team arrives at the contest, should
read the following help files:
Printouts of these four NON-LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC
help files will be given to you at the contest.
You should also read the help
and demos files specific to your programming language
that are on the Help Page.
Of course its OK to not do any of this reading in advance
if you are less concerned about being competitive.
IMPORTANT: LANGUAGE SPECIFIC HELP FILES:
Programming language specific help files
will NOT be given to you at the contest.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
for PRINTING AND BRINGING programming language specific
help and demo files, which are valuable guides to contest input/output
programming. Printable pdf files are available on the
Help Page.
PROBLEM SELECTION: This year like last year BOSPRE problems are being
selected to include 3 easy problems, 3 medium difficulty
regional level problems, and 4 world final level problems.
If you want to do well on the regional level problems, you should
familiarize yourself with the common algorithms in one of the
following:
Introduction to Algorithms, by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest,
and Stein, MIT Press, HARDCOPY EDITION.
Note: The paperback edition is printed on somewhat
transparent paper in India and and it is
a contract violation to sell it in the US.
Also most hardcopy editions sold by independent booksellers
on Amazon are similar. Best to buy hardcopy from Amazon itself
if you want a non-pirated edition with standard quality paper.
Algorithm Design, by Kleinberg and Tardos, Pearson Education.
Algorithms, by S. Dasgupta, C. H. Papadimitriou,
and U. V. Vazirani, McGraw-Hill.
The last two books have no geometry section, so if you use them
supplement them with
this.
PYTHON SUPPORT: BOSPRE will support PYTHON
with the caveat that it may not be fast enough for
the algorithmically harder problems.
PRACTICE ACCOUNTS:
All registered teams will be given a practice account for the
BOSPRE Practice Facility,
and additional practice accounts
that permit the team to practice against the last
2 BOSPRE contests.
Your coach will be emailed practice account names and passwords soon
after your teams are registered.
Please use these practice accounts
to familiarize yourself with the programming
environment and contest procedures before you come.
It is also possible to use the
BOSPRE Practice Facility year round
without an account,
by emailing problem solutions to the facility autojudge.
Brandeis University Host Site for BOSPRE 2018
For Coaches
IMPORTANT: TEAM LEADER: Each team must have a team leader responsible for
enforcing some of
the rules.
ENTRANCE FEE: There is a $75 per team entrance fee
payable by check or cash. Some schools can only accept a check
made payable to the school. Please make provision for this.
REGISTRATION: Please register your teams for the contest at the
ACM Programming Contest web site, and click on `Coach' under
`I am a'.
You do NOT need to know your team members to register your teams,
nor do you need to have chosen final team names (they can be changed).
You should register early to get on our mailing list and get
practice accounts. You WILL need to have your student team members
register individually BEFORE Oct 14.
IMPORTANT: FINALIZATION DEADLINE:
You may register a team
that decides not to come, or change your team name, PROVIDED
you delete the team or change its name BEFORE 12noon on the Sunday
ONE WEEK BEFORE the contest.
After this time food will have been ordered, so teams MUST NOT
drop out after this time. You may add or change team members after
this time, but will be pestered beginning a few days before the
contest to have all your team members complete their individual
registration before coming to BOSPRE.
Providence College Host Site for BOSPRE 2018
General Information
To see which teams registered for BOSPRE 2018 go
here.
BOSPRE 2018 is a cooperative effort between TO BE DETERMINED,
which are the host sites, and Harvard,
which provides judging and problems using the net.
When you register for BOSPRE 2018 you will NOT be assigned a
hosting site. This will be done by the BOSPRE 2018 managers the
weekend before the contest.
Some issues are: (1) some hosting sites are easier for some teams to
drive to than other sites, (2) some teams may be able to travel by
subway or bus to some sites but not others, and (3) two teams from
the same school typically go to the same hosting site.
Although BOSPRE 2018 will have multiple hosting sites, there
will be only one scoreboard and all teams at all BOSPRE 2018
hosting sites will be competing against each other.
Harvard teams will attend BOSPRE (to save travel money).
To avoid conflict
of interest, Bob Walton will not coach the Harvard teams for BOSPRE
(but will for the Regionals). To provide appropriate practice for
everyone who wants it,
the last 2 (or 3 if requested) BOSPRE contests will be made available
as practice contests to ALL teams registered for BOSPRE.
Your coach will be sent account names and passwords for these
practice contests soon after your team is registered.
No activities are planned for team coaches, but if any want
to plan something, e.g., lunch, they can email all the BOSPRE
team coaches at once at the mail drop
coaches<bospre@seas.harvard.edu>
(be sure to include the `coaches').
The Northeastern North America Regional web page is
here.
Last year's BOSPRE 2017 web page is still hanging around:
here.
