After four decades of putting some of the most remarkable programmers, from universities around the world, head-to-head, the great
2019 World Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) have finally arrived in Portugal and will be hosted by the University of Porto. The passage through Porto of
the world’s greatest and oldest university programming contest, however, won’t be all about the great finals. From 1 to 6 April, the “Invicta” will turn into a true technology and innovation capital of the world, as a result of a broad range of events open to all participants and potentially interested citizens.
A programming competition organized by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP), the 2019 edition of the National Olympiad in Informatics, a
hackathon, privileged encounters between large companies and young entrepreneurs, conferences on the future of technology and debates on the digital single market are just a few examples of a rich program of events taking place in Alfândega do Porto and Porto Innovation Hub; the “patrons” of the great 2019 ICPC World Finals event in the city.
Let us run through the events:
On 1 April, Alfândega do Porto will be hosting the
Start & Scale Week, a free entry initiative (subject to prior
registration) by
ScaleUp Porto to “promote innovation, entrepreneurship and technology”. The starting point will be the conference: “Developing skills for the future tech industry”, where national and international guests will be discussing how new generations might impact the future of technology. On the same day, Alfândega do Porto will also host the
2019 National Olympiad in Informatics, a contest co-organized by FCUP to “promote a taste for information technology” in young secondary education students, who will be challenged to solve problems using the programming languages “C, C++, Pascal or Java”. The four more talented young computer scientists will represent Portugal in the August 2019
International Computing Olympiads, in Azerbaijan.
April 3 will be one of the busiest days of the week, starting with a
hackathon – a programming marathon.
“Hackacity Porto”, supported by FCUP, is a
big data event where participants are challenged to resort to the data volumes generated by the city of Porto and use them to “create instruments, analyses and models” that offer practical solutions and help improve the quality of life of the population. The contest is open to all participants upon prior registration,
here.
Concurrently, secondary education students will have the opportunity to take part in a programming tournament –
ToPAS – created by the Computer Science Department of the Faculty of Sciences. The tournament tests, although supervised by a jury, will be assessed by an automatic system developed by the Department specifically for this purpose. The tournament's challenges require “problem-solving dexterity, sound knowledge of algorithms, fast programming skills and a team spirit”, but, more importantly, they aim to provide students with an opportunity to expand their “knowledge, problem-solving and computer science skills.” Also, on 3 April, the
Start & Scale conferences will invite participants to reflect upon cybersecurity. The admission is free but subject to prior registration,
here.
On 4 April, all attention will be geared towards the great ICPC World Finals. The
Start & Scale Week programme will be running in parallel, with encounters between
start-ups and large companies, in a dialogue that might form the basis for future collaborations.
The conferences will be resumed on 5 April, and the hosts guarantee that they shall not be conventional. At
Porto Innovation Hub, participants will also have an opportunity to learn about different ways of financing their business, through personal and direct contact with experts in the field. The admission is free but subject to prior
registration.
This week, dedicated to technology and innovation, closes with the Conference
“Scaleup for Europe – There’s a Market in cities”, at the
Porto Innovation Hub. The challenges and opportunities of a world that’s becoming increasingly urbanised raise an interesting question for the participants: “How can we work together, conduct business and improve the quality of life in cities?”. The conference agenda covers several points of discussion, including debates on the need for cooperation between large companies,
start-ups and cities, the digital single market or the notion of cities as “opportunity
hubs”. The admission is also free and subject to prior registration,
here.
Competing with ten teams, Russia won the 2019 Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), hosted by the University of Porto, Portugal. The team from the Moscow State University, winner of last year’s edition, made it to the top-3, again, earning the Cup and the Gold Medal of what is regarded as the world’s biggest university programming competition. After winning the title, Moscow was chosen to host next year’s edition of the ICPC’s world finals, which will take place between June 21 and June 26, 2020. This is the first time the event will be held the capital, after two past editions in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.
The team from the Moscow State University was the best among 135 groups, from 47 different countries, and also the winner of the Northern Eurasia region. The winning group was the first to solve two of the challenges, and the only one solving 10 out of 11 problems. In 43 editions, the Moscow State University was the first education institution winning the competition two years in a row.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (winner of the Northern American region), the University of Tokyo (winner of the Asia-Pacific region) and the University of Warsaw (the best European Team) also won gold medals.
The National Taiwan University (Taiwan), the University of Wroclaw (Poland), the Seoul National University (South Korea) and the North Korean KimChaek University of Technology (winner of the Eastern Asia region) won silver medals. And the bronze medals were awarded to the Sharif University of Technology (Iran) (winners of the Western Asia region), the Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology (Russia), the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Russia) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong).
For five consecutive hours, the contestants were challenged to solve 11 everyday problems – with subjects ranging from glazed tiles shops, to the construction of bridges or the organization of traffic signs – using C++ or Java programming languages and testing their logic and “algorithmic creativity” skills. The competition, which made its appearance in Portugal for the first time this year, brought together more than 400 students that are considered to be the best and brightest programming talents of the world.
Porto, the ICPC 2019 city host, was elected best European destination in 2012, 2014 and now again for 2017. What makes this city so appealing?
In 2012 and 2014, Porto was distinguished with the prestigious title of 
