The ICPC is affiliated with the ICPC Foundation. Operating with the auspices of the ICPC Foundation and headquartered at Baylor University, the ICPC Community is a global volunteer community of faculty, students, and professionals operating on six continents at 3,000 universities that annual conduct the International Collegiate Programming Contest. The ICPC is an academically credentialed competition among the universities of the world. Joining with industry and community, the ICPC seeks to raise performance and aspirations of the most gifted problem solvers in the computing sciences by instilling habits of excellence in the next generation of problem solvers. Established in 1970 with the auspices of UPE which continue to this day, the first finals held in 1977. The competition is sometimes referred to as the ICPC Battle of the Brains and the Olympics of Competitive Programming. The ICPC is the historical root of all programming competitions.