20th Anniversary of Programmers Olympiad Training Centre: Programming Success

On Programmer's Day, September 13, I would like to tell you separately about a special unit of SSU – the Programmers Olympiad Training Centre named after N.L. Andreyeva (POTC). This year marks 20 years since its creation.

The Programmers Olympiad Training Centre named after N.L. Andreyeva accepted the first students on September 1, 2003. On July 23, 2003, the dream of all those who developed the Olympiad movement at Saratov University came true: since 1996, he organized the participation of SSU students in the World Programming Championship, and since 1998 he has held quarterfinal competitions of these most prestigious programming competitions in the world.

Rector of SSU D.I. Trubetskov signed an order on the establishment of the Centre for Olympiad Training of Programmers at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology. Natalia Lvovna Andreeva, the organizer and ideological inspirer of the Olympiad programming movement in Saratov, the creator of the regional summer school for gifted computer scientists and mathematicians, passed away on July 24, and her name was rightfully assigned to the new structure.

Winning code

The creation of the center was a great achievement for the Olympiad training of programmers at our university. M.R. Mirzayanov, who headed the center from 2009 to 2018, made an invaluable contribution to its development. He himself was twice the silver medalist of the World Programming Championship in 2002 and in 2003, the European champion as part of the team in 2003, since 2003 he has been the coach of the SSU teams, who brought up the silver and gold medalists of the World Championship.

Mirzayanov created the world-famous Codeforces platform for training sports programmers. In 2006, the team of our university became the world champion in programming, making the Saratov school of programmers famous not only in Russia, but also in the world, which continues to occupy a leading place in the training of programmers in the country.

The attitude towards the Olympiads is certainly changing both at the government level and on the part of students, the number of people willing to take part in Olympiad training is growing every year. The semifinals are no longer held in 5 regions, as in 1998, but in 16, not only in Russia, but also in most countries of the former Soviet Union, and a number of regions, including ours, hold so-called qualification, qualifying competitions before the quarterfinals. More than 1,200 students participated in the qualification competitions in our region last year.

The tasks that are proposed to be solved by teams of 3 students in 5 hours of competition are also significantly complicated. If earlier there were more tasks for implementation, knowledge of algorithms and programming language tools, now knowledge of various mathematical disciplines, knowledge from the field of algebra, geometry, graph theory is more often required, it is required not just to implement some algorithm, but to find the most optimal way to solve the problem, checking its effectiveness before sending the solution to verification.

Victory at the 2006 Championship

High status

Last year we held the 25th anniversary quarterfinal programming competitions, which in recent years have had the status of the Championship of the South and the Volga region of Russia. Our competitions bring together universities from 26 subjects of the Russian Federation from the Volga, Southern, North Caucasus and Central Federal districts.

This year, the Saratov University team will participate for the 19th time in the finals of the most prestigious World Programming Championship (ICPC). During the years of participation in the SSU championship, he won 5 sets of silver medals, 2 gold medals, twice the title of European champions and the title of world champions in 2006. In terms of the number of medals won, Saratov University is second only to ITMO University, St. Petersburg State University, Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Students studying at the Center for Olympiad training of Programmers participate in competitions of various levels, taking prizes. Only in 2022 we took part in the Championship of the South of Russia in Taganrog, the Championship of the Urals in Ufa, in international competitions in Minsk, in the championships organized by the Sports Programming Federation in Tyumen and Voronezh (in Tyumen, the SSU team won the winners' cup and gold medals).

Victory in Tyumen (2023)

Every year, the center holds an Open University Olympiad and interuniversity, individual and team training camps for SSU students and the All-Russian Summer School of Programmers, which this year was attended by students from 11 universities, including ITMO University, MAI, KFU, Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, Voronezh, Penza Universities, HSE and SFU.

It is possible to talk about the achievements of graduates of the Olympiad Training Center for Programmers for a long time, they work in leading IT companies in Russia and abroad, they have fully realized themselves, are respected and financially secure. P.P. Komkov has been working at GOOGLE in Ireland for many years, and every year he found an opportunity to come to Saratov to head the technical committee of our quarterfinal. All the years of the center's existence, sponsorship has been provided by a member of the Board of Trustees of the SSU, G.G. Narkaitis. We are grateful to our graduates A.V. Frolov, I.A. To Androsov, M.R. Piklyaev, two-time participants of the finals of the World Programming Championship, who continue to work at the Center for Olympiad Training of Programmers.

Open Interuniversity Programming Olympiad (2023)

New challenges

The issue of the shortage of promising students for the Olympiad movement is growing every year. This is primarily due to the fact that the capital's universities attract the most gifted students, starting from grades 9-10. The opportunity to enroll in any university with the help of the Unified State Exam washes out the best of the best from regional universities. Despite the fact that our university and the faculty of KNIIT do a lot of work with schoolchildren (including creating circles on Olympiad programming, holding city and regional Olympiads, the Olympiad included in the list of the Russian Council of Rectors, have a basic department at FTL No. 1), not all winners and prize-winners of programming Olympiads enter the our university. The exception in recent years was the year 2021, when the faculty of KNiIT was joined by the full team of FTL No. 1: Alexey Shnirelman, Roman Brovko and Ilya Lankin.

Every September, the Center for Olympiad Training of Programmers invites students from all faculties and institutes of SSU to participate. Knowledge of the basics of computer science and programming today is comparable to knowledge of a foreign language: such competencies help to improve their skills, they are in demand not only in the IT field, but also in science, production, education and management.

The staff of the center congratulates all those involved in the N.L. Andreeva Olympiad Training Center for Programmers on their 20th anniversary, expresses gratitude to all those who provided moral and financial support, and hopes that the center will retain the opportunity to remain significant for our university and our region.

Following the materials of the Programmers Olympiad Training Centre named after N.L. Andreyeva