By Renata Silva (FCUP) and Mafalda Leite (SICC/FEUP)
” Several teams of students from the Faculty of Sciences (FCUP) and Faculty of Engineering (FEUP) of the University of Porto, shone at the most recent edition of the Inter-University Programming Marathon (MIUP), which took place on 18 October at the University of Aveiro’s Águeda School of Technology and Management. U.Porto dominated the competition podium with gold, silver and bronze medals.
Leading the way were the “Tiny Silly Problem” team, who managed to solve eight of the 10 problems proposed. The team is made up of students Marco Vilas Boas, from the Master’s in Informatics and Computing Engineering (FEUP), Félix Martins, from the Master’s in Artificial Intelligence (FEUP and FCUP), and Patrick Daniel, from the Master’s in Computer Science (FCUP).
One of the competition’s silver medals went to “Long long main“, by students Luís Barbosa, Luís Gonçalves and Sofia Sousa (all from the 3rd year of the Bachelor in Informatics and Computing Engineering at FEUP and FCUP), for managing to solve four of the proposed problems.
In 5th place in the competition were “oneL“, who won bronze, also by solving four of the competition’s challenges. This team includes students Filipe Zheng, from the 2nd year of the Bachelor in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (FCUP and FEUP), Miguel Rocha and Rayner Sulyak, from the 1st and 2nd year of the Bachelor in Computer Science (FCUP), respectively.
Also taking part in the competition were “The CodeFathers“, students Joana Louro and Luís Santos, from the 3rd year of the Bachelor in Informatics and Computing Engineering, and Luís Santos and Pedro Machado, from the Bachelor in Computer Science, who finished in 13th place.
The teams were coached by Pedro Ribeiro, a lecturer at FCUP’s DCC, and André Restivo, a lecturer at FEUP’s Department of Informatics Engineering (DEI). This is the third year that the FEUP and FCUP teams have competed under the unified banner of the University of Porto. “These results highlight the talent and dedication of our students, as well as the collaboration between FEUP and FCUP. In particular, the winning team, made up of elements from both faculties and from a joint course, shows how co-operation within the University of Porto can lead to excellent results,” says André Restivo (DEI).
Pedro Ribeiro, a lecturer at FCUP, also highlights “the gratifying joint effort of two faculties who realise that UP as a whole is stronger and more united in an area of great prestige”. “Participating in the competitions and all the preparation and training involved is of great importance to the scientific growth of our participants, and we are proud to see a wide range of academic and professional excellence in the current and former competitors,” he adds.
The three medal-winning teams will now represent U.Porto at the Southwestern Europe Regional Contest (SWERC) 2025, which will take place from 21 to 23 November at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon.
About MIUP
The Inter-University Programming Marathon (MIUP) is a programming competition aimed at higher education students. The competition is run by teams of up to three people, where for five hours the teams will try to solve between nine and 11 different problems, using the programming languages C, C++, Java or Python.
The competition allows participants to test their problem-solving skills, while at the same time enabling students and teachers from Portuguese higher education institutions to socialise and exchange experiences.”