I had a similar experience. As an undergrad I actually competed in the ACM competition but we had barely enough interest for a 3-person team. Furthermore, I on

I had a similar experience. As an undergrad I actually competed in the ACM competition but we had barely enough interest for a 3-person team. Furthermore, I only found out about the competition the year I graduated; advertising was very limited. However, competitions like this are more focused on algorithms/math, which might not coincide with American universities' focus on software engineering. Hackathons, which do coincide, seem to be far more prevalent.