The opening ceremony of the oldest, greatest, and most prestigious Northern Eurasia Finals of the ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest was held at Yerevan State University.

The event was attended by RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Vahram Dumanyan, Deputy Minister Karen Trchunyan, YSU Rector Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, the world's renowned programmer, Olympic champion, two-time ICPC champion Gennady Korotkevich, guests from international and local structures.

Welcoming the participants of the event, ESCS Minister Vahram Dumanyan noted that since 2001 he has been Regional Director of Armenia at the ICPC International Collegiate Programming Olympiad, which is both honorable and obliging.

“Taking this commitment in 2001, the Armenian universities became part of the world university community. This competition is a rather complex process that requires complex algorithmic solutions, therefore, simple participation and mastering of the system techniques already requires painstaking work. For the past 20 years, we have had both successes and failures,” stated Vahram Dumanyan, emphasizing that Armenian teams have twice reached the finals of the competition.

The Minister informed that Armenia is competing at this Olympiad as part of the Northern Eurasia region, where the Russian team, which is a multiple world champion, is also participating. Emphasizing that the Olympiad is being held for the third time in Armenia, Vahram Dumanyan, expressed hope that the Armenian participants will do their best to win medals.

According to the ESCS Minister, the issue of having a Sports Programming Federation in Armenia is currently under consideration. The Federation will include the members standing at the origins of this competition. He called on all IT companies to take practical measures to advance sports programming. In this respect, Vahram Dumanyan thanked the “CodeSignal” company for assistance in the competition: “It's not the first time “CodeSignal” has sponsored the Olympians. I am calling on other IT companies to follow this example if they are interested in the significant development of this field, and want to have the best staff. By the way, in countries with a leading IT sector, sponsorship of such contests is of unprecedented volumes.”

The Minister noted that Gennady Korotkevich and Dmitry Filippov, who arrived from St. Petersburg, will hold the competition in Yerevan. According to Vahram Dumanyan, Gennady Korotkevich is an unsurpassed sports programmer who has no equal in the world.

Gennady Korotkevich, who has exceptional talent, has won all possible titles and solved all possible tasks," underlined the Minister, adding that Dmitry Filippov also achieved great success within the framework of the Olympics.

Vahram Dumanyan expressed satisfaction that in addition to the three main teams traditionally participating in the competition (YSU, Armenian-Russian University, American University of Armenia), this year the list of RA universities participating in the Olympiad has expanded. According to the Minister, the ratings of the world's leading universities are also formed with the participation in such events, therefore, the active involvement of RA universities is highly appreciated, since the target is to have at least 4 universities in the list of the top 500 universities in the world until 2030.

Armen Andreasyan, Assistant of the Chair of Programming and Information Technologies of YSU, was awarded a medal of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia for his great contribution to the achievements of schoolchildren in the subject Informatics and participants of the International Collegiate Programming Contests of ICPC university teams, and Associate Professor of the Chair of Mathematical Cybernetics of the Armenian-Russian University Tigran Piliposyan and Associate Professor of the American University of Armenia Suren Khachatryan were awarded certificates of appreciation of the MoESCS for the achievements of the participants of the International Programming Contests of ICPC university teams. ESCS Minister Vahram Dumanyan handed the awards.

Rector of YSU Hovhannes Hovhannisyan also welcomed the participants of the event, informing that this year the competition is held simultaneously in 5 cities: Yerevan, St. Petersburg, Barnaul, Almaty and Minsk (about 300 teams will participate). Wishing the Armenian teams success, the Rector of YSU noted that the final of the competition will be held in Egypt in 2023.

Albert Sahakyan, the coach of one of the YSU teams, and the representative of “CodeSignal” company stated that many of the employees of their company are team members from different universities or team coaches. In particular, he emphasized that this year's competition is unique since there are more than one candidates for the Armenian teams to reach the finals.

In turn, the highest-rated Olympic world champion Gennady Korotkevich noted that both IT companies and the ESCS Ministry contribute to the holding of the contest in Armenia, which will foster the advancement of the Olympic movement.

“If you are participating in this stage, then it is interesting for you. No matter how difficult it may be, you must not give up, you need to enjoy this process,” emphasized Gennady Korotkevich addressing the participants of the contest.

It should be noted that the 13 teams representing Armenia in the contest were selected based on the results of the previous stage. At this stage, 4 teams from YSU, 3 teams from the Armenian-Russian University, 1 team from the American University of Armenia, the National Polytechnic University of Armenia, the European University, the Armenian State Pedagogical University named after Khachatur Abovyan, Goris State University, National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia. The organizers of the Yerevan contest are Yerevan State University and the “CodeSignal” company.

Note that 111 countries are participating in the contests, distributed by region. During the contest, in addition to defining the 12 medalists who won the regional stage, the finalists will also be determined.