A team of three UC Santa Barbara students is one of fifty teams worldwide that is advancing to the World Finals of the 2026-’27 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Team Team UCSB-WA qualified by placing sixteenth out of fifty-two teams at the North America Championship (NAC) event, held March 22 in Orlando, Florida. The top fifty-four teams from Canada and the U.S. advanced to the World Finals, to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 15-29.

Coached by alumnus (at right, from left) Wesley Hung (’24 Computer Science), the team includes second-year undergraduate students Ezra Furtado-Tiwari (CCS Computing, Mathematics) and Om Mahesh (CCS Mathematics; COE Computer Science), and fourth-year undergrad David Qiao (L&S Computer Science, Mathematics).  

Widely regarded as the premier collegiate programming competition, the ICPC challenges teams to solve complex algorithmic problems under intense time constraints, mirroring the type of problem-solving required in modern software development. Now, the advancing teams will present those skills on the world stage. 

World Finals competitors will represent top problem-solving talent. “To advance, a team needs extreme problem-solving skills,” said event organizer and UCSB computer science professor Daniel Lokshtanov. “Imagine the hardest homework problem you've ever gotten; now, solve ten of those in five hours.” In fact, a defining moment for the team came late in the contest, when a breakthrough on a difficult interactive problem secured, by a hair, their spot at the World Finals.

For Qiao, this victory marks a fulfilling dream realized after four years of competing in the Southern California Regionals, with just one problem separating him from qualifying in past years.

“This year, by not only making it to NAC but also qualifying for worlds, I feel like I’ve completed every goal I’ve had for my competition career,” he said. “I'm very thankful for my team as well and the group that we practice with; it's been a joy to discuss problems alongside them.”

The team’s finish took everything — and almost every minute — they had, as they finished in sixteenth place, just on the guaranteed cutoff to qualify for the World Finals and with only fourteen minutes of penalty time separating them from the next school. "We finished just on the guaranteed cutoff to qualify for the World Finals with a margin of only  fourteen minutes of penalty time ahead of the next school," Qiao said.

"I'm incredibly proud of Ezra, Om, and David," said UCSB distinguished computer science professor and College of Creative Studies (CCS) dean, Timothy Sherwood. “The ICPC World competition is the biggest possible stage for these creative problem solvers! I also love that all three of our undergraduate-serving colleges (CCS, Engineering, and Letters & Science are represented on one team. That is representative of the collaborative spirit that makes UCSB so wonderfully unique."

Ezra Furtado-Tiwari took on the sensibility of being in it for the challenge and the experience. “I’m most excited about trying harder problems and learning new techniques,” he said. “Even when problems feel out of reach, exploring them is part of what makes this process so rewarding.”

Said Coach Wesley Hung, “I'm really proud of them for qualifying for the ICPC World Finals. I've seen them practicing diligently for months leading up to both the regional and national competitions, and I'm very happy to see their hard work pay off.”