The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) 2019 Asia, Topi, regional was held at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. Students of universities and colleges from across the country, especially Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, participated in the competition.
It was for the first time that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) got the chance to host such a promising event.
About 67 teams had taken part in the contest. The three days contest was organised by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a society of GIK Institute students.
Mr. Kamran Bangash, Provincial Minister for IT was chief guest and Dr. M. Ayub Alvi, the Director FAST-NUCES was guest of honour on the occasion. Mr. Sardar Aminullah Khan, Pro-Rector (Admin and Finance) also attended the ceremony. They were very much pleased with the quality of programmers that appeared for the competition.
Dr. Khalid Khan, Director DoST also attended the event. DoST will be a strategic partner of GIK to organize such events in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in future
Speaking on occasion, Mr Kamran said that the financial problems of universities in the province would be resolved very soon and the government has chalked out a comprehensive strategy for solution. “I have appealed to Prime Minister, Imran Khan that if the government invests in IT field it could help in materializing his vision,” he said. “We want to compete with our arch-rival India in IT field.”
Dr. Alvi said that there should be enthusiasm of innovation among the students who should work with complete determination and concentration while keeping in mind the requirements and needs of the country’s industry.
Dr. Khawaja Umar Suleman who introduced ICPC in Pakistan said that the countries across the globe have come very close due to revolution in the IT field and now they focus on knowledge-based economy.
Dr Masroor Hussain, Director ICPC spoke in detail that how the students should contest at national, regional and international level and how they could reach to participate in the final which is scheduled to be held at Moscow in June 2020.
Engr. Iffat Maab, Associate Director ICPC, Engr. Ehtisham Hassan, Coordinator ICPC, Syed Sheraz Ahmad, President of ACM GIK Institute chapter and every member of ICPC also spoke on occasion.
This year team “The Spartans”, from FAST-NUCES Karachi, took the stage by storm and became the regional finalists. They would go on to compete in the ‘World Finals’, which is to be staged in Moscow.
FAST-NUCES Islamabad, Punjab University College of Information Technology, FAST-NUCES Karachi got second, third and fourth positions, respectively. These teams will be invited for ICPC Asia West Continent Final for a second chance to go to ICPC World final in Moscow.
Mr. Bangash gave away medals, shields and certificates to the winner teams.
Mr. Manzoor Ali, Regional Operational Manager MCB gave special gifts to the winning team.
