TEHRAN –Students of Sharif University of Technology are ranked first among West Asian countries at the 14th International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

The international competition 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.

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.

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.

This year, for the first time, the competition was held in Kazakhstan in Astana.

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.

Huddled around a single computer, the teams of three students compete against each other to solve eight or more complex, real-world problems within a five-hour deadline.

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

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.

Iran grabbed a gold medal, two silver medals, and a bronze medal at the 36th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), ranking 9th among 96 countries.

Hosted in Alexandria, Egypt, the event started on September 1 and concluded on  September 8, IRNA reported.

Each participating country selected a team of up to four contestants to represent their nation.

The team competed in a two-day competition. Each contestant competed individually to maximize their score by solving three algorithmic problems within five hours.

Iranian students attended the event online and ranked ninth globally. Amir-Ali Asgari grabbed the gold medal, Amir-Hossein Farkhondeh-Far and Amir-Reza Dorosti won the silver medals, while Parsa Farajpour-Sarabi received the bronze medal.

In a remarkable achievement, Iranian students won five gold medals, ranking first in the 17th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) which was held from August 17 to 27 in Vassouras, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The five-member team comprised Hannaneh Khorramdashti, Mohammad-Mehdi Keshavarzi, Arya Fateh-Kerdari, and Ali Naderi-Lordjan, Mehr news agency reported.

This year, over 250 students from 57 countries participated in the event.

Five Iranian students who attended the 54th International Physics Olympiad managed to win a gold medal and four silver medals, improving the country’s ranking from 17th in 2023 to fourth this year.

The 54th edition of the IPhO commenced on July 22 in the city of Isfahan and concluded on July 28.

A total of 200 elite students from 47 countries including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Mexico, Turkey, and some other countries participated in the nine-day event, IRNA reported.

A team of Iranian students won five gold medals in different fields of research in the 9th edition of the '1Idea 1World' International Innovation, Design & Startup Competition.

The event, which is considered one of the biggest international idea and technology competitions in the world, was held in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, on April 28-29.

Participants from 24 countries including Iran, Canada, China, Taiwan, The United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates participated in the competition both in person and online to showcase their innovative projects in 10 different subgroups such as medicine and agriculture, IRNA reported.

From among 273 different innovative ideas, the top five ideas received special awards, with two of the awards going to Iranian participants.

In the Taiwan International Science Fair (TISF) 2024, which was held from January 28 to February 2, the Iranian team ranked fourth among 28 countries.

Mehrad Faridi and Ilya Haji from Iran competed with 41 teams during the five-day event which was hosted by the capital city of Taipei, IRIB reported.

Iran ranked fourth next to Taiwan, the United States, and Russia.

Attending the 40th Annual Science Olympiad Tournament at Michigan State University, Iranian students managed to win a bronze medal and two diplomas of honor.

A total of 114 teams from 84 countries presenting 310 scientific projects participated in the competition, Mehr news agency reported.

The competition is held annually for students aged 12 – 18 from June 1 to 15.

Supported by Oxford University, the competition was held in two stages in the fields of technical engineering, computer science, energy, biological science, social science, art, and robotics.

MT/MG