CCS Students Help Lead UCSB Team to ICPC Nationals

UCSB team places fourth at 2025 ICPC Southern California Regionals, secures spot at 2026 Nationals

Ezra Furtado-Tiwari ‘28 (CCS Computing, Math), Om Mahesh ‘28 (CCS Mathematics; CoE Computer Science), and David Qiao ‘26 (CoE Computer Science; L&S Mathematics) placed 4th among 75 teams at the 2025 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Southern California Regionals this past November. Playing as Team WA, the UCSB team solved the same number of problems as the top three finishers, including the crowned regional champions, earning advancement to the 2026 ICPC National Contest.

According to UCSB ICPC organizer and College of Engineering Computer Science Professor Daniel Lokshtanov, this marks the first time a UCSB team has advanced past regionals since he began organizing the program.

ICPC Regionals are programming contests in which teams from leading research universities and beyond solve real-world algorithmic problems under a strict five hour deadline. Final standings are determined by number of problems solved, number of submissions, and total time taken. This year, five UC Santa Barbara teams competed at regionals, earning placements of 4th, 10th, 15th, 23rd, and 26th.

The national competition will take place March 19-22, 2026, at the University of Central Florida’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, where UCSB WA will contend with top collegiate teams from across the country for a chance to advance to the ICPC World Finals in Dubai, U.A.E. this November.