Collegiate programming contest for West Asia held
Collegiate programming contest for West Asia held
TEHRAN –Sharif University of Technology students have claimed the first top three positions in a programming contest known as the 25th International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) for the West Asia region.
Hosted by Sharif University of Technology on December 19 and 20, the competition brought together some 250 students from 50 universities nationwide, IRNA reported.
The ICPC is a prestigious international student programming Olympiad. It was founded in the 1970s in the USA and has since become a global competition that gathers the best teams of students from universities around the world to solve complex algorithmic problems.
According to Mohammad-Amin Ahmadlou, an official with the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, “the contest aims to enhance technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and teamwork among students.”
“Held in two sessions earlier this year, the course covers essential topics such as competitive programming fundamentals, data structures, string processing techniques, and basic graph algorithms,” he added.
The official further noted that the educational initiatives are expected to significantly elevate students’ knowledge and skills and develop a new generation of skilled programmers for professional fields in information technology and artificial intelligence.
This year, 80 teams composed of three students each competed against each other.
Three participating teams from Sharif University of Technology namely Ballmer Peak, Big Dash and LP0 on Fire grabbed gold medals, and ranked the first to third, respectively.
Two teams from University of Tehran ranked fourth and fifth. A team from Sharif University of Technology and a team from Amirkabir University of Technology were placed sixth and seventh.
Being ranked first, Ballmer Peak team from Sharif University of Technology will participate in the ICPC world finals.
Three more teams including SENSODYNE and KhasTeAm from University of Tehran, and another one named Argons from Amirkabir University of Technology will attend ICPC in West Asia to compete against other top teams and defeat them to be able to attend the ICPC world finals.
In 2019, Iran was placed among top ten team in the world finals and grabbed the bronze medal.
In 2024, students of Sharif University of Technology ranked first among West Asian countries at the 14th ICPC, which was held from September 15 to 20 in Astana, Kazakhstan, ISNA reported.
The event was attended by 73,000 students from more than 100 countries representing leading universities in each country.
The Iranian team was composed of Ali Safari, Alireza Keshavarz, and Amir-Mohammad Shahrezaei.
Sharif University of Technology ranked 13 globally, sharing the position with Harvard University, St. Petersburg State University, University of Oxford, and University of Science and Technology of China, as well as other famous institutions receiving the highest honors.
At the international level, ICPC was first held in 1977 in the USA, University of Michigan. Since then, the competition has been held annually in various countries such as the USA, Russia, the Netherlands, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Sweden, Poland, Thailand, Morocco, Egypt, Bangladesh and Portugal.
The ICPC community’s purpose is to advance prospects for the next generation by bringing students together working collaboratively to solve algorithmically challenging problems, and preparing them to build dependable systems that benefit their neighbors with the support of universities, industry, and community leaders, globally.
Volunteer coaches prepare their teams with intense training and instruction in algorithms, programming, and teamwork strategy.
Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and build software systems that solve the problems. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the winner.
Recent achievements
Iranian students won two silver medals at the International Innovation and Trade Expo (ITE 2024) which was held in London.
Organized by Kingston University, the competition was held from September 25 to 27 either in person or virtually.
One of the Iranian teams composed of Amir-Abbas Kavousi-Amin and Artin Salari designed a pair of smart glasses for the blind, IRNA reported.
The other consisting of Ilia Rezazadeh and Padra Qazvinian designed a smart system for emotion recognition through facial expression analysis.
The competition brought together many participants and inventions in diverse areas.
Students of Iran University of Science and Technology managed to win first place in Eurasia Federation of International RoboSports Association (FIRA) Open competition 2024.
The competition was held from November 6 to 9 in Van, Turkey, bringing together 130 teams from eight countries.
Iran grabbed five gold medals and two special awards in the International Science and Invention Fair (ISIF) 2024, which was held in Indonesia from November 5 to 10.
The competition brought together 1,980 teams from 24 countries competing in eight fields including technical- engineering, chemistry and nanotechnology, biotechnology and environment, energy engineering, physics and astronomy, artificial intelligence and technology, social sciences, education, and educational technologies, IRNA reported.
A total of 18 students from Iran attended the 47th WorldSkills Competition, winning 9 medals including a silver medal and medallions for excellence.
The competition was held from September 10 to 15 in Lyon, France. Some 1,500 competitors from more than 65 countries and regions around the world gathered in Lyon to compete in different skills.
Hasan Mohammadi and Hamid-Reza Hamidi won the silver medal, IRIB reported
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source: tehrantimes.com