1. The competition will start on Friday 22rd July 2005, and finish on Sunday 24th July 2005.
   
   
2. All information pertaining to the Programming Challenge can be found on the website http://www.cs.um.edu.mt/~itsapc05.
   
   
3. The competition is open to teams formed by registered University of Malta students, including students who have just finished their final year. There is no constraint on the number of students in the teams.
   
   
4. Participation costs Lm5 per team.
   
   
5. Teams are to register their intention to participate by paying the participation fee, and giving (i) the name of their team; (ii) the names of the students members of the team and (iii) an email address on which the team can be contacted before and during the programming challenge. Registration may be done with Mr Vincent Sammut 8:30am to 11:30am Monday 18th July 2005 to Thursday 21st July 2005. Students may also leave their registration fee and details with Gordon Pace or Sandro Spina on Thursday 21st July 2005 between 18:00 and 20:00. You may leave your registration under Gordon Pace's office (room 416) if both Sandro and Gordon decide to have an early day. The Computing Building will be open between these hours on Thursday. Teams failing to register by Thursday 21st July 2005 cannot participate.
   
   
6. The task will be made available on the website on Friday 22rd July at 8pm Standard Zeus Time**.
   
   
7. Clear criteria upon which the entries will be judged shall also be published on the website on Friday 22rd July at 8pm Standard Zeus Time. The criteria will have no subjective element, and will simply be based on the quantifiable performance (eg quality of results, speed of calculation of results, etc) of the program. 8. Registered teams can submit their solutions on the website. Regular Submissions must be posted before 8pm Standard Zeus Time of Sunday 24th July. Entries posted before 8pm Standard Zeus Time of Saturday 23th will be considered to be Lightning Submissions. Teams may submit multiple solutions, but only the latest submitted Lighting Submission and Regular Submission will be considered for judging purposes.
   
   
8. Registered teams can submit their solutions on the website. Regular Submissions must be posted before 8pm Standard Zeus Time of Sunday 24th July. Entries posted before 8pm Standard Zeus Time of Saturday 23th will be considered to be Lightning Submissions. Teams may submit multiple solutions, but only the latest submitted Lighting Submission and Regular Submission will be considered for judging purposes.
   
   
9. If a team has any questions regarding the assigned problem during the competition, they may be sent to itsapc05support@cs.um.edu.mt. If the question is deemed fair and relevant, the question together with the answer will be emailed to all the registered teams and on the website.
   
   
10. All submitted solutions are to be in the form of a zip file with (i) a text file identifying the team and any special notes/instructions; (ii) an executable file and (iii) any other necessary files. The program and additional files must reside in a single directory. No source file, installation packages, or programs which require absolute filepaths will be accepted. All programs will be run on a Pentium PC running Windows, to enable fair execution time comparison if required. Any submissions not in this format will automatically be disqualified.
    
    
11. There will be three prizes awarded. The First and Second Prizes of Lm100 and Lm75 will be awarded to the best two Normal Submission as judged according to the published criteria. The best Lightning Submission judged using the same criteria will also win Lm50.
    
    
12. The winners will be announced on Saturday 30th July 2005 in an activity to be organised by ITSA. More details will be posted later on the website.
    
    
13. The decision of the judges is final. Complaints can be sent to the judges. They will be ignored, except for the name of the complaining team being posted on a special Sad Bad Losers page on the Programming Challenge website.

** All references to time in these rules are in Standard Zeus Time the time as set on the zeus machine of the Computer Science and AI department. The time on the machine can be seen at the bottom of this website.