On April 12, the Northern Eurasia Finals of the ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest will be launched at Yerevan State University. The oldest, largest and most prestigious programming contest in the world will be held in Yerevan by Gennady Korotkevich and Dmitry Filippov from St. Petersburg.

On the eve of the competition, the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia Vahram Dumanyan, who has been the Regional Director of Armenia at the ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest since 2001, received Gennady Korotkevich, and the coach of one of the YSU teams, representative of the “CodeSignal” company Albert Sahakyan. Welcoming the guests, the Minister expressed confidence that the presence of the world's strongest programmer Gennady Korotkevich will inspire the participants of the competition and reveal the way to become a future champion.

Note that Gennady Korotkevich participated in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) for the first time at the age of 11 and won a silver medal. As the youngest winner of the competition, Gennady Korotkevich's victories brought great joy to the competition commission and participants. He is the record holder of the International School Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) (6 gold and 1 silver medals). He was the absolute winner three times, a two-time ICPC champion (participation for the third time is not allowed). From 2014 to 2021 Gennady Korotkevich was a successive winner in Google Code Jam, 4 times in Facebook Hacker Cup, 6 times in TopCoder Open competitions. Currently, he has the highest rating in Codeforces․ Gennady Korotkevich studied at St. Petersburg ITMO University, in 2019 he received a Ph.D. at the same university.

Vahram Dumanyan stressed that it is necessary to do everything possible to popularize the Olympic programming movement, its advancement and transmission to future generations. He expressed satisfaction that in addition to the three main teams traditionally participating in the competition (the teams of YSU, Armenian-Russian University, American University of Armenia), other universities in Armenia are also participating in the competition this year.

Gennady Korotkevich, in turn, presented the current state of the Olympic programming movement and the perspectives of further development. He noted that there is great interest among university students in Russia and other countries, and expressed hope that the obstacles caused by the pandemic are already in the past, as they have reduced direct contact between the teams.

Vahram Dumanyan inquired from Gennady Korotkevich and Albert Sahakyan about the preparatory work for the competition, the preparation level of the teams and other current issues. The Minister expressed willingness to contribute to the organization of the competition at a proper level, emphasizing that at present intellectual, scientific and business preconditions have been created in Armenia for successful IT activities.

Note that the ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest will be held simultaneously in 5 cities: Yerevan, St. Petersburg, Barnaul, Almaty and Minsk, 111 countries will participate in it, as per distribution by regions. The organizers of the Yerevan contest are Yerevan State University and the “CodeSignal” company.