Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Archives for November 2006

We are going to India

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I’m very happy to tell you all that Rajiv Perseedoss (CSE Year III), Yannick Catherine (also CSE Year III), Madhav Ramlugun (IS Year I) and I (as coach) are going to IIT Kanpur to participate in the ACM-ICPC Regional Programming Contest to be held on the 9th and 10th of December.

(By the way, here are some related previous posts: Un concours de programmation à l’Université de Maurice and Sponsors urgently needed!)

IIT Kanpur is one of the best universities in the world and our team of students will have to battle very hard as there will be teams from seven other countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Singapore, Taiwan and China). One important information is that they’ll use a 100% Linux environment during the contest…

This adventure has been made possible by Mr Ganesh Ramalingum, Managing Director of Data Communications Ltd. (DCL) who has agreed to finance ALL our expenses.

Thanks to DCL, Mauritius will, for the first time ever, participate in an ACM-ICPC Regional Programming Contest.

There will be a press-conference this coming Friday (1st December) at 16:00 at the University.

Once more, I would like to thank my three colleagues, Sudha Cheerkoot-Jalim, Anwar Chutoo and Pascal Grosset who worked day and night to make all this possible.

Good luck (et merde!) to Rajiv, Yannick and Madhav!

On being a Linux or Mac evangelist

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I was reading Money as a Social Barrier on Guy Kawasaki‘s blog and he wrote:

After all, evangelism is the process of selling dreams, and selling dreams doesn’t necessarily require monetization.

And this struck a chord with me… Being a Linux or a Mac evangelist is easy. Linux and Macintosh computers are so desirable and feature-packed that we can convince people without involving money in the equation.

But “Microsoft evangelism” can only be an oxymoron…

(Image courtesy of Apple)

Sponsors urgently needed!

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MAJOR UPDATE: Data Communications Ltd.‘s CEA, Mr Ganesh Ramalingum has just announced that his company will bear all the costs. We have our sponsor! We are going to India!

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is one of the largest professional bodies of computer scientists in the world. Every year, ACM organises an international computer programming contest where the best undergraduate students from major universities compete against each other. Quoting the official factsheet:

“The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.”

The annual event is comprised of several levels of competition:

  • Local Contest – The Department of Computer Science & Engineering of the University of Mauritius held a local programming contest on 11/10/2006 to select one team of three students to represent the University at the next level of competition. The selected team consists of Madhav Ramlagun (BSc Information Systems Year I), Yannick Catherine and Rajiv Perseedoss (both in BSc Computer Science & Engineering Year III) and is coached by me, Avinash Meetoo (Lecturer in Computer Science).
  • Preliminary Online Contest – The Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, is one of the major universities organising a Regional Contest (in this case, for the Asia region). All the teams participating in the Regional Contest had to qualify during a Preliminary Online Contest. The University agreed to pay a $100 registration fee for this online contest held on 11/11/2006 and our team succeeded in qualifying for the next level. An official confirmation was received from IIT Kanpur on 15/11/2006. Details are available here.
  • Kanpur Regional Contest – 45 teams representing 8 countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Mauritius) will participate in the Kanpur Regional Contest to be held in Kanpur, India, on 9-10 December 2006 (in about three weeks). It is the first time a team from Mauritius is eligible to participate in such a prestigious contest. The winning team will be selected for the World Finals to be held in March 2007 in Tokyo, Japan.

During a departmental meeting on 15/11/2006, we estimated the cost for participating in the Kanpur Regional Contest to be:

Airline tickets to Delhi 100,000 Mauritian Rupees
Train from Delhi to Kanpur 5,000 Mauritian Rupees
Stipend (for a 5 day journey) 15,000 Mauritian Rupees
Total 120,000 Mauritian Rupees

Lodging will be provided by IIT Kanpur.

The University of Mauritius will pay for part of the cost but we really need sponsors for financing the rest.

So, if you think you can help, don’t hesitate to contact me as quickly as possible (because of the deadline) at:

Avinash Meetoo

Lecturer in Computer Science,
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering,
University of Mauritius.

Tel: 454-1041 ext 1392.
Mobile: 493-9394.
Email:

We really need some sponsors. Of course, we will strive to have a win-win situation. And, of course, this event will be covered by the regular media.

By the way, we are also looking for a rendez-vous with Hon. Etienne Sinatambou, Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications. So we’ll be glad if someone can help us arrange such a meeting.

Naturally, we are also using the normal channels…

Feel free to publicise. Thanks a lot.