Republican Olympiad in informatics among university students kicks off

The first stage of the Republican Olympiad in informatics among university students kicked off. The Olympiad is co-organized by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Ministry of Education and Institute of Information Technologies of National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (ANAS). 

The opening ceremony of the Olympiad took place in Baku Engineering University today. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Olympiad, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade and rector of Baku Engineering University Havar Mammadov spoke about the significance of the Olympiad.

It was stated that the annual Olympiad is being held for the 11th year.

It was also noted that the Republican Olympiad in informatics among university students is dedicated to May 17 - World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. 

The purpose of the Olympiad is to increase the level of knowledge of students of higher educational institutions in the field of computer science, programming, the growing interest in this field, as well as to attract the students who have become winners in this field to the international Olympiads.

The Olympiad is held in two stages. Registration of teams representing higher educational institutions of the republic is conducted on the website of the Olympiad (www.olimpiada.az) within one month before the beginning of the first stage. Each team consists of one teacher (as a leader) and three students (bachelors). According to the rules, maximum four teams from each institution are allowed to the first stage of the Olympiad.

Over the past 10 years, an average of 40-50 teams from 10-15 higher educational institutions (160-200 participants) each year participated in the first stage of the Olympiad.

This year, 52 teams from 24 universities were registered on the site of the Olympiad (www.olimpiada.az) and  earned the right to participate in the competition. Along with students studying in the   universities in Baku city, this year students of higher educational institutions in regions, in particular, state universities of Ganja, Mingachevir, Sumgait, Azerbaijan Technological University, as well as Azerbaijan State Agrarian University showed special interest in participating in the Olympiad.

208 students will compete in this year’s Olympiad. Over 20 girls are represented in the teams.

The Olympiad is held according to the rules of the ACM / ICPC (Association for Computing Machinery -International Collegiate Programming Contest) and the IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics) through the website www.e-olymp.com/az. According to the rules, only one team from each institution showing the highest results wins the right to compete in the final stage of the Olympiad. Four teams showing best results in the final will be declared winners.

Winners will be awarded prizes from companies Nar and BestComp Group, as well as honorary certificates and diplomas of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies. 

The next (final) stage of the Olympiad will be held at the Institute of Information Technologies of ANAS on May 6, 2017.