Stop Press!!! Madhav Ramlugun, Rajiv Perseedoss et Yannick Catherine ont remporté le concours. Ils représenteront l’Université de Maurice le 11 Novembre lors de la prochaine étape. Félicitations!
Le Département Informatique de l’Université de Maurice organise avec la participation de la compagnie Data Communications Ltd. une remise de prix le mercredi 25 octobre pour récompenser ceux et celles ayant participé à  un récent concours de programmation.
Ce concours, ouvert à  tous, a eu lieu le 11 octobre et a vu la participation d’une trentaine d’étudiants qui ont eu à  résoudre quatre problèmes de programmation en deux heures. La résolution de ces problèmes nécessitait une analyse profonde et l’écriture de programmes en C, C++ ou Java. Chaque étudiant avait à  sa disposition un ordinateur fonctionnant sous Linux et toute une panoplie de documentation technique en ligne.
L’objectif principal de ce concours était de permettre à  de jeunes talents en programmation d’émerger. Une campagne d’information avait précédé l’évènement afin d’aider les participants à  maîtriser Linux et les langages de programmation.
Les organisateurs (Sudha Cheerkoot-Jalim, Anwar Chutoo, Pascal Grosset et Avinash Meetoo, tous chargés de cours en Informatique à  l’Université) souhaitaient permettre aux étudiants de prendre confiance en eux. Les questions avaient été formulées de telle sorte que les solutions nécessitaient une réflexion sérieuse. Et surtout l’apprentissage par coeur ne servait à  rien!
Un autre objectif était que l’ensemble des chargés de cours puisse avoir un aperà §u du niveau réel des étudiants afin de prendre des mesures correctives si nécessaire.
Finalement, il était important d’identifier les trois meilleurs étudiants du département afin que ceux-ci participent à  un concours régional de programmation se déroulant sur Internet en Novembre (le ACM Programming Contest organisé par le IIT de Kanpur).
Les étudiants ont fait montre de beaucoup d’enthousiasme à  se mesurer les uns aux autres dans une ambiance amicale. Pour preuve, voici le témoignage de Rajiv, étudiant en troisième année de BSc (Hons) Computer Science & Engineering:
« J’ai participé à  ce concours pour le fun et le challenge et aussi pour me mesurer vis-à  -vis des autres étudiants. Étant donné qu’un tel concours est organisé pour la première fois à  l’Université, je me suis jeté à  l’eau, d’autant plus que j’ai déjà  une petite expérience de ce type de concours. De tels initiatives doivent à ªtre organisées plus souvent. Les étudiants ont grand besoin d’un peu de motivation de temps en temps. A quand le prochain? »
et de Selven, étudiant en deuxième année:
« Je suis membre du Linux User Group of Mauritius et ce concours a été un immense défi car j’adore la programmation. Faute de temps, je n’ai pas pu donner le meilleur de moi-mà ªme. Selon moi, les exercices vus en classe de programmation à  l’Université sont majoritairement conà §us pour les étudiants moyens. Ce concours m’a donné l’occasion de réfléchir sur des problèmes plus complexes. Et je dois dire que j’ai aimé cela… »
La plupart des étudiants ont exprimé le souhait d’avoir ce genre de concours plus fréquemment et ce dès la fin de l’épreuve. Visiblement, ceux-ci ont pris conscience de l’importance de telles activités en complément de leur formation académique.
La remise de prix aura lieu au Lecture Theatre 1 (LT1) de l’Université de Maurice le 25 octobre 2006 à  midi. Pour de plus amples information, vous pouvez contacter:
Bonjour, Est-ce qu’il serait possible d’avoir la liste des problèmes énoncés lors de ce concours?
Bien sur Chege! Les Voilà!
I think that for computer science students, this type of contest need not to be considered as if as a supplement during breakfast but rather as the important meal. Personally, like each and every participants just before the contest, i used to think that one ought to be very good in programming. But now i guess i was wronged. It’s more like using our brain to think, think and think of tricky ways for doing things right. Why tricky, simply because you have limited time. Waste as lot of memory as you want, write “stupid” codes but provided your program output what was expected. During the contest, i stopped for some minutes, turned around and watched all the other participants working on their pcs. Believe me, that was a beauty. No further comments on that because i’ve got to words to express the feelings at that time. That was simply great !!! I’ve done my best for the contest and what is more important is that i’ve learned about my own limitations. How far can i think and how quick? I’ve have already started preparing myself for the next contest. ;-)
Avinash you are doing great job since you joined the department. But please try to organise the programming constest more frequently. :-)
Waiting for the next contest.
ine gagne ene bon lexperience.
Meet next time
nice.. i just read it in le mauricien :)
hmm.. my name on this blog.. ahhh mais quelle honneur.. i’ve been almost blessed la :p
+$3|/PC
btw who were the winners?
Hé! Hé!
You’ll know who are those who will represent the University in the Preliminary Online Contest tomorrow at 12:00 :-)
hehe..surely am not among them hehe
any prix de consolation for the rest of the 19 students??
I sincerely think that following the prize giving ceremony today, there should be an article on the local newpaper about the event and about the winners ;-) Let them feel proud for what they have achieved !!! This will definitely boost up the number of participants for the next coming contest.
CHEERS TO THE WINNERS !!! BUT BEWARE !!!
Most importantly congratulations for all those who participated in this contest. ;-)
Today during the prize giving ceremony, i could almost feel the increasing heart beat rates of each and every participant.Everyone was praying so that he could hear his name from Avinash. That was a very unsual environment to all of them and to me. As soon as the 3 winners were announced, there were a big round of applause from the audience, smiles on faces, craking of jokes, as if we were all of a sudden in paradise. But does these physical movements of each and everyone reflects their respective feelings? If you are sincere in your answer, your answer would be NO.
I am in fact expecting this answer as you are all human. And human cannot stop himself from experiencing feelings but can hide it.To be sincere, this is exactly what all of us have been doing today; yes including me.
My advice to all those who did not get the opportunity to be among the 3 best, as soon as you get back home, start execising yourself, building your programming solving skills muscles. Don’t forget one very very important point. The next contest is schedule in January 2007. That is in only less than 3 months time. Start preparing as from NOW !!!! Forget about the past. If they won this time, may be lady luck was with them. Next time with us !!! ;-)
Now what you need to do is to learn and apply the formula of winning. The formula that will help you finish among the 3 best in less than 3 months time. Start studying algorithms, go on ACM Contest web site work out past questions, choose one programming language (C++ or Java) and get yourself specialised in that particular language.Learn all the already existing functions that the language offers, for C++ (like me) start learning STL (get it on the net, it’s freely available) but first you need to know how ‘templates’ works and how to apply it.Practice, practice and practice and you will have a real smile on your face which will correspond to your internal feelings in less than 3 months time.
If you understand what i mean, so like me, as from now you will start saying “BEWARE” to the winners as i said from the beginning. Winners at one time are not always winners all the time. Everyone is a winner but it all depend on TIME !!! Now it’s their turn, next it will be ours. :-)
By the way, it’s perfectly possible to have multiple teams… So you do not really have to be among the 3 best for next years contest :-)
But you must not miss the most important point:
Nice speech by The Mr Burton today..
Am definitely registering in the next one!! :)
This contest is a HIT, I think the next contest Mr meetoo will have to work out a scheme to select candidats.. i believe the number of candidats will be well beyond 40 :P
Hats off to the organisers
maybe next time we could invite guys from other institutions to participate.. (UTM, DCDM .. etc)
The Programming contest was a great experience..a hit indeed..next time we’ll make it..the best is to try and win..the next is to try and lose (i heard that line somwhr in a movie..bt it was to motivate a guy who was hesitant to propose a gurl :p) as Mr Burton said.
Congrats to the winners, and hats off to the organisers..may we b blessed with other contests..
hmm..
any1 wanna try a LAN Arena for a change??? i heard there is one in preparation by the RadioActiv club..and its for soon..
that was a hit indeed. What about the prizes? What were at stake? ;-)