The University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu announced its pilot Programming Varsity (ProgVar) team. This is headed by Ryan Ciriaco Dulaca, who graduated in 2001 from UP Cebu with a degree in BS Math and Computer Science and is a faculty member of the university’s ComSci department.

The team has 19 members — two from the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and 17 from the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. The members took a qualifying exam before they were accepted into the group. They attend weekly trainings every Wednesday and Thursday at the UP Cebu computer laboratory.

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“I expect the team to live up to the expectations of their fellow Iskolars ng Bayan,” said Dulaca, their head coach.

The varsity team aims to encourage ComSci students to be involved inprogramming. The team is training for the upcoming Association for Computer Machinery Inter-Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC), a team-based programming competition operating under the support of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University.

The contest involves a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure.

Among the schools in Cebu that will compete in the upcoming national programming competition are the Cebu Institute of Technology, University of San Jose Recoletos and the University of the Philippines. The winner will compete for the Asia level.

Cleffrem Cabo, a fourth-year BS ComSci student and a team member, said “I look forward to competitive programming because