Celebrating Excellence in Leadership and Merit

ICPC NAC Hall of Fame

Honoring the outstanding individuals who have shaped the ICPC North America Championship through their leadership and technical prowess

ICPC North America Awards

🌟 The Ali Orooji Outstanding Merit Award: Named in honor of Dr. Ali Orooji, this award recognizes a member of the ICPC North America Community who has demonstrated sustained excellence in leadership, service, and the advancement of competitive programming.

🏆 Excellence in Leadership Award: Recognizes extraordinary effort and achievement by members of the ICPC North America Community who have made significant contributions to the organization.

💎 Outstanding Contribution Award: Awarded to organizations and individuals whose dedication and service have been essential to the planning, execution, or technical success of the ICPC North America Community.

🤝 Outstanding Partner Award: Presented to organizations whose collaborative spirit, support, and partnership have been instrumental in elevating ICPC North America’s mission.

Staff Awards

Host Awards

Partner Awards

2025 - 2022 ICPC North America Staff Awards

Bob Kramer

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

As RCD for the East Region, Bob (and Betsy) have provided outstanding competitions for decades. Bob is also an indispensable member of the NAC team and the World Finals operations staff. His work impacts every contestant, and his professionalism sets a high standard within ICPC.

Etienne Vouga

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

As Chief Judge for the NAC and RCD for the South Central region, Etienne plays a pivotal role in shaping the contests. His leadership in ICPC initiatives and dedication to quality problem sets keep the ICPC community innovative and strong.

John Buck

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

John is the go-to problem solver for the ICPC. As chief judge for the Greater NY regional and a core systems team member, his behind-the-scenes contributions and ability to deliver under pressure make him a true leader and essential to the success of ICPC events.

Kevin Clevenger

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Kevin has coordinated ceremonies for every NAC and the past 10 World Finals with unmatched organization and enthusiasm. Known for handling chaos with grace, Kevin’s behind-the-scenes work makes the seemingly impossible feel seamless.

Samir Ashoo

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Sam is a critical member of the Systems team who keeps track of everything and keeps everything on track. His collaborative leadership style, willingness to help everyone, and his sense of humor make him an indispensable member of the Systems team for the Pacific Northwest Regional, the NAC, and the World Finals. ICPC North America is grateful to Sam for the incredible number of volunteer hours he contributes to our contests.

Isaac Traxler

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Isaac serves as the liaison between Systems and Operations and, as someone who knows both areas well, he is vital to the success of the NAC and the World Finals. He is often seen late at night checking networking and power, making sure the floor is safe from tripping hazards, working on security, teaching volunteers how to set up and configure computers, and creating innovative solutions to whatever problems arise. He is always the last person to leave on contest day—staying until every job is correctly completed. His leadership style is to lead by example and, in that way, he has educated and influenced members of the ICPC community for almost 50 years.

Kathy Traxler

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

If you are on the contest floor, either at the NAC or the World Finals, and your workstation is correctly set up, you have food and water, your balloons and printouts get delivered, and you get help when you need it—thank Kathy. She is the backbone of the floor personnel team that keeps the contest floor working smoothly. She meets these leadership challenges with grace under pressure and with an open heart toward all.

Finn Lidbetter

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Finn has made exceptional contributions to the essential activities of problem creation and judging at all levels in ICPC North America. His leadership was also a critical component in enabling the successful launch of the ICPC North America East Division. Finn has a record of sustained excellence and dedicated service to the ICPC organization, and his contributions to contest creation cannot be overstated.

Douglas Lane

🌟 ICPC North America The Ali Orooji Outstanding Merit Award

David Van Brackle

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

David, or VanB to all who know him, serves as the RCD for the Southeast region of ICPC North America. In that role, he has introduced a number of innovations to ICPC North America contests. He is the driving force behind the ICPC North America South Division (“The Big South” as he calls it), serving as Division Director, where he has helped set the course for regional collaboration across North America. He has also served as chief judge for the NAC for the contests from 2020 – 2024. He led the team responsible for the contest problems, making him one of the most important people at the NAC. He also does an amazing job running the Resolver at the Award Ceremony – an event we all look forward to.

Christian Lim

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Yongwhan Lim – Yongwhan, or Christian, appeared on the ICPC North America radar just a few years ago, and he has had a bigger impact in that short time than almost anyone has had in the history of North America. He serves as the coach for the Columbia team, as the site director for the Greater NY regional, as chief judge for the Mid-Central region, organizes or participates in training opportunities for several universities, and is the driving force behind the ICPC Curriculum Committee, the ICPC Internship Program, the ICPC Website Development Team, the ICPC Archive project, and the Competitive Learning Institute at the World Finals. He and his wife, Grace, are vital members of the ICPC community, both in North America and at the World Finals.

Edward Corwin

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Ed has served ICPC North America as a coach for 35 years, as a site director, a chief judge, as the RCD for the Mid-Central region of ICPC North America, and as a key member of the Host Team for World Finals 2017. Ed is the proverbial keystone of ICPC North America – he is the silent and mostly unknown person who makes many of the accomplishments of ICPC NA possible. His unassuming manner belies his superb competence and analytical mind. Like the keystone in an arch, he helps hold it all together.

Tom Capaul

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Tom serves ICPC North America as RCD for the Pacific Northwest region, as Deputy Director for North America, and as Director of Operations of the NAC. Operations includes all physical aspects of the contest itself, and managing it requires skilled leadership of time, people, and resources. Tom fulfills these tasks with exceptional dedication and approaches all situations with an upbeat attitude that makes working with or for him a joy.

Donna Furon

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Donna is the Registrar for the NAC and serves as de facto NAC Manager much of the time. If you received a communication about the contest, a survey, a newsletter, had your eligibility questions answered, or an exceptional situation handled, if you received help with scheduling your registration time, received the correct lunch at the contest, had a room when you arrived at the NAC, or received the proper documentation when you arrived at Registration – that was almost certainly Donna’s doing. She has also served as the Registrar for the Southern California contest for several decades and is the font of all knowledge for the next generation of registrars training in North America now. She hates being called out for her contributions and probably strenuously objects to this citation.

John Clevenger

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

John has been the face of the contest floor for many decades at both the NAC and the World Finals. As Technical Director, if you plug it in, John is responsible for sourcing it and making sure it works. He is also the driving force behind PC^2, the Contest Control System used at both the NAC and the World Finals. His contributions through the decades are too numerous to list, but when you look at the scoreboard or use CoachView or enjoy a contest that is fair, secure, and without technical errors, you are looking at John’s leadership in action. However, he is most famous for his pronouncements of “Do not touch ANYTHING…”

Ali Orooji

🌟 ICPC North America The Ali Orooji Outstanding Merit Award

Ali Orooji served as the first Director of ICPC North America Contests from 1998–2013, guiding the region through a period of rapid growth and innovation. He has been a member of the ICPC Foundation Board since 1997 and received the prestigious Mark Measures ICPC Distinguished Service Award in 2008. He also served as an ICPC World Finals Director for four years.

As the first coach and faculty advisor for the University of Central Florida Programming Team since 1989, Dr. Orooji has coached at least 22 teams to the ICPC World Finals. His teams have consistently excelled, never placing below third in regional competitions.

Dr. Orooji played an instrumental role in creating the ICPC North America Championship (NAC) and continues to support the contest as Governor for ICPC NA in an Emeritus capacity. A faculty member in Computer Science at UCF, he has also organized the UCF High School Programming Tournament since 1990, welcoming participation from over 100 different high schools.

His dedication has not only established UCF as a Pillar Institution within the ICPC community but has also inspired countless students to pursue excellence in computer science. This award proudly bears his name in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the ICPC.

2025 - 2020 ICPC North America Host Awards

President of UCF Alexander Cartwright

💎 ICPC North America Outstanding Contribution Award

For their stalwart dedication to making the dream of the ICPC North America Programming Camp a reality, for serving as leaders in organizing the ICPC North America Championship at the University of Central Florida, and for uniting community, industry, and academia to secure and assure the success of the 2025 ICPC NAC – NAPC.

Don Harper

💎 ICPC North America Outstanding Contribution Award

The University of Central Florida

💎 ICPC North America Outstanding Contribution Award

President Alexander Cartwright
Honorable Bev Seay
Dean Michael Georgiopoulos
Jennifer Sutton
Kimberly Lewis
Sandy Pouliot
Paul Sepulveda
Don Harper
Jenny Hartman
CECS Accounting Department
CECS IT Department
CECS Travel Procurement
UCF Student Union Staff

For their stalwart dedication to making the dream of the ICPC North America Programming Camp a reality, for serving as leaders in organizing the ICPC North America Championship at the University of Central Florida, and for uniting community, industry, and academia to secure and assure the success of the 2024 ICPC NAC – NAPC.

Michael Georgiopoulos

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

The Honorable Beverly Seay

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Jennifer Sutton

🏆 ICPC North America Excellence in Leadership Award

Jennifer spends the entire year working on the ICPC NAC, and that is in addition to her full-time job as the Administrative Assistant to Dean Georgiopoulos. She is the host event organizer: arranging rooms, food, event space, gifts, volunteers, and a list of other items critical to the success of the NAC. She works incredibly long hours during the event but still has a smile for everyone, no matter how tired she is. It is not hyperbole to say the NAC at UCF could not happen without her.

The University of Central Florida

💎 ICPC North America Outstanding Contribution Award

President Alexander Cartwright
Honorable Bev Seay
Dean Michael Georgiopoulos
Jennifer Sutton
Don Harper
Natasha Coleman
Jenny Hartman
Kimberly Lewis
Sandy Pouliot
Paul Sepulveda
Pete Alfieris
Bel Huston
Nanette Aubert
Cecilia Elias
Garrett Preisser

For their endless dedication to making the dream of the ICPC North America Programming Camp a reality, for serving as leaders in organizing the ICPC North America Championship at the University of Central Florida, and for uniting community, industry, and academia to secure and assure the success of the 2023 ICPC NAC – NAPC.

The University of Central Florida

💎 ICPC North America Outstanding Contribution Award

Dean Michael Georgiopoulos
Honorable Bev Seay
Francesca Sagliano
Jennifer Sutton
Nicole Gonzalez
Don Harper
Robin Knight
Jenny Hartman
Cheryl Stevens
Sheryl Shelley
Nanette Aubert
Paul Sepulveda
Pete Alfieris
Bel Huston
Kimberly Lewis
Patrick Burt
Sandy Pouliot
Lisette Lopez

For their endless dedication to making the dream of the North America Programming Camp a reality, for serving as leaders in organizing the North America Championship at the University of Central Florida, and for uniting community, industry, and academia to secure and assure the success of the event.

The NAC 2021 ceremony was held online this year, so there were no awardees.

Georgia Institute of Technology ICPC NAC 2020 Organizing Team

💎 ICPC North America Outstanding Contribution Award

Troy Peace
LaDonna Cherry
Ann Claycombe
Brad Hastings
Alyshia Jackson
Alicia Palmquist
Albert Snedeker

For their dedicated and effective leadership in organizing the 2020 ICPC North America Championship, ensuring its success during a challenging year and contributing significantly to the ICPC community.

Georgia Tech College of Computing

💎 ICPC North America Outstanding Contribution Award

For providing crucial institutional support to ICPC North America and serving as an academic hub for the 2020 ICPC NAC, demonstrating exceptional commitment to advancing computer science education and competitive programming.