Strongest Russian Programmer Teams took part in NSU contest

In the beginning of November there was a final of XII Open Siberian Pottosin Programming Contest in NSU. Annually the final attracts dozens of teams from Russia and abroad. This year there were 50 participants.

The contest is held by NSU Department of Information Technology and has two rounds. The first, qualifying internet-round, performed distantly according to the rules of international АСМ- ICPC championship. It took place on the 2nd of October with 301 participating teams from 6 countries and 63 Russian cities.

The second round – in presence - has two nominations. The first one is an opportunity for qualified programmers both analyst-programmers and advanced projects designers to show themselves up. This year the task was to help lost aliens (who barely knew only their own home sky constellations) to calculate their planet position. Second nomination was held under АСМ-ICPC regulations.

The Siberian contest traditionally attracts the strongest teams of programmers from all the country - Novosibirsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tomsk, Barnaul, Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Omsk, etc. Teams from 11 Russian cities participated in the final competition this year. The biggest delegations were from Novosibirsk - 14 teams (NSU, NSTU, NGPU, SibSUTIS, gymnasium №1) and Moscow - 9 teams.

“Students are changing, but schools remain the same. I must note that it is very difficult to train teams of high level. And there are a few universities that can handle this job well. NSU traditionally has strong teams which take part in Russian and international contests,” - said Elena Nikolaevna Kruchkova, jury member and Altai State Technical University professor. “We usually meet teams from the universities that have experience in these areas. All the teams which came here are already winners.”

For the past several years students from Moscow and St. Petersburg show the best grounding.

“Our team took part in last year contest as well and we took the 7th place. This year we are the winners. It’s difficult to say what exactly helped us to make such a breakthrough. We just did our best to be well prepared Trainings took place in Moscow twice a week for five hours on the Yandex base,” - shared their secret of success Sergei Fedorov, MSU student and member of the winning team “Moscow SU ST”. “There are three members in our team and we are from the same city, Saratov. We are from the same school, we have taken part in school Computer Sciences competitions and have successfully performed in the international competition.”

Novosibirsk best team was «Novosibirsk SU 1» including Kirill Vasilevskii, Vadim Zaytsev, Svyatoslav Sherbina. NSU students took the 7th place in overall ranking.

“As a student I have participated since my first year. Two years ago, when I was in another team I performed quite fairly. We have not won anything, but managed to show ourselves well. We failed during the first round, but succeeded in the second one. We even left several strong teams behind. It’s very interesting to fulfill the tasks and present the results, and it’s also pleasant to go up in the standings.” said Vadim Zaytsev. “We prepare for the contest using mainly on-line tests: there are some internet sites with tasks archives from previous contests, where you can send your solution and they are ready to qualify you. Some sites hold contests via Internet, and we also use experience of those students, who have already taken part in such contests. For example, last year while preparing for a world championship final we were given some lectures and tasks on these topics.”

Winners are:

First place - «Moscow SU ST», Moscow State University. Second place - «Waterogers», Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Third place - «SPSU ITMO 2», Saint-Petersburg National Research University ITMO First nomination winners - «Moscow SU ST», MSU. Second nomination winners - «SPSU ITMO 1», SPSU ITMO

The winners were awarded with Samsung company prizes. “Best Siberian Team” from “APC” company is awarded to “Tomsk Su Slik”, TSU. “Best NSU Team”, with prizes from “Parallels” company was “Novosibirsk SU 1”. School prizes from “Microsoft Rus” are given to “Gymnasium 1 #1” team from gymnasium №1, Novosibirsk as well as «Belka_Strelka_Koleso» team from SPbU and lyceum №123, St. Petersburg.

NSU administration expresses sincere gratitude to companies: Samsung, Parallels, APC, Microsoft, and Alawar for their active support in organizing the contest second round.