The regional competitions of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) – Southern and Volga Russia Regional Contest – have started at Saratov State University. This year, 84 university teams from 21 Russian regions are participating in the competition.
The organisers of the championship in Saratov were the Programmers Olympiad Training Centre named after N.L. Andreyeva, SSU, and the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies.
The Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies Sergei Mironov announced the opening of the 24th Quarterfinals of the Championship of the South and Volga Region of Russia of the student team olympiad in programming and the closing of the regional stage of the 24th All-Russian Schoolchildren Team Olympiad in Programming.
‘According to the decision of the Directorate of the World Programming Championship, starting from 2017, we have been officially holding the championship of the South and the Volga region of Russia. In fact, this is the semifinals of the Northern Eurasia Championship. This is what we now call the quarterfinals of the World Programming Championship among university student teams from the countries of the former Soviet Union,’ Sergei Mironov explained.
Rector of Saratov State University Aleksei Chumachenko addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. He noted that the role of programmers and specialists in IT had grown significantly in the modern world and marked that university leaders were doing their best to host such olympiads at universities.
‘The holding of the programming olympiad at the university shows the level of development of the higher educational institution. This reflects the degree of development of science and education, because now every work is done with the help of programmers. I hope the participants will represent their universities with dignity and make their dreams in sports programming come true,’ Aleksei Chumachenko said.
Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics Andrei Zakharov expressed gratitude to the Programmers Olympiad Training Centre named after N.L. Andreyeva, SSU, which helps young programmers improve their skills, and noted that progress in programming would be noticeable not only in some particular city or region, but all around the country.
The main round of the competition has been held on November 1, and, on the same day, there has taken place closing ceremony, as well as the solemn awarding of the winners.
The team includes three participants who have to solve 8-14 tasks in 5 hours. The contest is held according to the classic ICPC rules, which can be found here. According to the results of the qualification stage, 8 teams will represent Saratov State University.
This year, the participants are allowed to use TRD – reference printed materials in order to prepare them to the semifinals.
The ICPC Programming World Championships have been held since 1977 according to a multi-level system – all universities in the world are divided into regions where regional finals are held. But in Russia it is Northern Eurasia Finals (St. Petersburg).
