Also this year there are no grandfathered team members and we will be selecting all 6 members of the first two teams.

Every year the Harvard Computing Contest Club (HC3) fields at least two teams of 3 undergraduates each to compete in the Northeastern Preliminaries of the ACM Programming Competition. The Harvard team that does best there, if it does well enough, goes to the Regionals, and if that team does well enough in Regionals, the team goes to the ACM World Finals.

Team members are determined by competition in Team Selection Contests. 5 or more members are selected to teams each year. If you are selected several years in a row and gain sufficient ACM contest experience you may be `grandfathered' and may be placed on the first team without participating in the Selection Contest. One student is typically `grandfathered' each year so she/he may help run the Selection Contest.

HC3 runs practices, some of which are at set times, and some of which are facilities available 24x7. See the schedule.

Before you try out for the team, be sure you can make the dates of the Preliminaries, Regionals, and World Finals listed in the schedule.

You can participate in either the Team Selection Programming Contest or Team Selection Theory Contest or both. Teams are selected from the results of these contests according to the Team Selection Rules. Briefly, each of the first two teams has a core of 2 students who excell in the Programming Contest, and this core tries to choose a third team member who excells in the Theory Contest. Third and fourth teams can also be formed, but must have a core consisting of students who have solved at least one Programming Contest problem. ACM Preliminary, Regional, and World Final contests are of course programming contests and not theory contests.

In order to participate in Team Selection Contests you should notify us by emailing walton@seas.harvard.edu (note: this is @seas and NOT @fas: @fas will get the wrong person). You must be a full time student at Harvard College in the Fall Semester.

We need to have a good estimate of how many are coming to the Selection Programming Contest in order to provide enough terminals. We need to know who is going to participate in the Selection Theory Contest so we can get them the sealed envelops with contest materials. If you decide not to participate after all, email us again so we do not unnecessarily try to provide terminals or sealed envelop materials.

You can participate in a selection contest even if you do not want to be on a team (e.g., in order to practice against the chance you will want to be on a team the following year). BUT, you must tell us by the END OF THE SELECTION PROGRAMMING CONTEST (5pm on the designated Sunday) if you want to be on a team, so if you are unsure, be prepared to make this decision on the spot.

If you participate in a Team Selection Contest we will put you on our HC3 mailing list. You can always ask us to remove you, or ask to be added even if you do not participate in a selection contest.

You are welcome to come to practices, come to suppers, use the practice facilities, or get and use a practice account, even if you do not participate in any selection contest. Although only Harvard undergraduates may be team members, any member of the Harvard community may participate in other HC3 activities. Solving programming contest problems can greatly increase a programmer's mastery of various efficient computer algorithms, and is a good supplement to theory courses.

Please send questions or comments to walton@seas.harvard.edu.