TEHRAN –The final stage of the Rayan international programming contest will be held in the upcoming spring, bringing together 100 selected programmers nationally and internationally.

Supported by the Vice Presidency of Science, Technology, and Knowledge-Based Economy, Sharif University of Technology will host the event, IRNA reported.

The competition plays a key role in discovering and nurturing young talents. It serves as a platform to flourish creativity and innovation, and an opportunity for experts and those interested in programming to share knowledge and experiences.

Moreover, the event will help participants improve their technical skills, and solve complex problems via algorithmic thinking. It helps them to strengthen problem-solving skills, which is one of the most important skills needed nowadays.

Some 25,000 best coders from over 140 countries attended the first phase of the competition on November 30, virtually. India, Bangladesh, China, Russia, Egypt, Iran, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, the U.S., and Japan had the highest number of participants, respectively. 

Based on the average scores of the top three participants of each country, China, Japan, the U.S., Hong Kong, Russia, Canada, South Korea, Iran, Poland, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, and Kazakhstan were ranked among the best, respectively.

Collegiate programming contest for West Asia 

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. 

MT/MG