The only North American teams to edge ahead of them were University of Waterloo and MIT, placing third and fifth respectively. Based on their practice record, Rudnicki expected them to solve four problems. They solved five and were into their sixth when they ran out of time. The real skill in the contest is mathematical, says Rudnicki. There is only one machine for three contestants.
Competitors get eight problems to solve in five hours.
They're warned by judges two of the problems are designed so everybody is expected to tackle them, while two problems are too complex to be solved in the time allotted. If there's one thing he'd do better going into next year's competition, it would be practice more. The teams that placed ahead of us, first of all are from much larger universities and secondly, they practice more. Universities like Western Ontario have regularly scheduled practices with large groups and then pick their teams from the best of the pool. Howard Cheng and Alan Skelley, responding by email, said they placed well within their expectations.