Algorithm Community Workshop I
inzva, the sanctuary of the Turkish hackers, hosted a one-of-a-kind workshop in order to discuss the future of competitive programming in Turkey. We are happy to welcome former IOI medal winners and competitors, ACM ICPC world and regional participants as well as leading academicians in the field: Assoc. Prof. Tolga Can, Assoc. Prof. Pınar Karagöz and Assoc. Prof. Fatih Demirci.
After the introduction, Murat briefly explained inzva and its activities, underlying reasons why inzva has interest in competitive programming of Turkey.
The topics covered during the workshop:
- Case study.
- Div. A and Div. B terms;
- Motivations and possible action items for both tracks.
- Algorithm league to connect Turkish algorithm community.
- Div. A camp that is planned in this winter.
- Div. A + Div. B camp that is planned for summer. expected>100 participants.
- EU funded international camp. hosting Turkish teams together with teams from EU, Russia, USA, and China.
Turkish Hacker Diaspora: It is mentioned that all the graduated people who participated in previous IOI’s, currently work in big technology companies in different countries.
outcomes:
Div. A is for students who have experience and success in competitive programming. By 2017, there is only one person who got a chance to represent Turkey in world finals. Div. B is more for general purpose to increase awareness and attractiveness of algorithmic competitions.
Ideas about algorithm camps were explained by Yusuf Hakan Kalayci, a former IOI gold medal winner. He emphasized that camps should be independent of any lecturer, which means experiences students can take the lead in each topic. By having so, every camp has the same quality of content and topics. He offered the idea of the preparing curriculums and lecture contents for both A/B divisions.
A winter camp is planned for Div. A at Jan. 26th - Feb. 3rd.
Statistics show us there are only 8 universities participate ICPC qualifications and only a few of them made it regularly. The motivation for the subject is very low so as the success rate. The first finalist from the country went to ICPC final in 2016. Assoc. Prof. Fatih Demirci mentioned that the universities should propagate the contest and support the students that want to participate. When more people aware the importance of the subject, every success will be more appreciated as a result of this the motivation will increase.