On April 21st, 2018, the 42nd Annual World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) was completed at Peking University. Huazhong University of Science and Technology has a representative team to attend this contest. Members include Wenhao Song in the School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Lingyun Liao in the School of Computer Science and Technology, and Hao Fan in the School of Software, and the coach is Kun He, a faculty member in the School of Computer Science and Technology. The team solved 5 problems and won 31st place, outperforming strong teams from Wuhan University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

There are 140 teams selected from six continents, 111 countries, 3,098 universities, and 46,000 contestants to enter the world finals. In the five-hour final contest, the contestants need to solve as many as possible 11 extremely hard algorithm problems by using only one computer. This not only requires the participating team members to have broad knowledge, solid mathematics background, excellent algorithm design abilities, and outstanding programming skills but also a comprehensive challenge of their psychological quality, self-learning ability, and teamwork spirit.

The ACM International Undergraduate Student Programming Competition started in 1970 and it is recognized as the largest, highest-level, most authoritative, and fairest international undergraduate student programming competition in the world. It has a long history and is an authoritative organization in the international computer industry. Organized by the American Computer Association (ACM), it has always been known as the "Olympic for Programming."