Researchers from the GRAFO group and ETSII launch a competitive programming course
The activity, organized by the Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering (ETSII), is oriented towards a discipline where several teams compete to solve the greatest number of programming problems in the shortest possible time.
To do this, new programming techniques such as advanced sorting algorithms or dynamic programming will be shown, and advanced data structures will be introduced to improve the efficiency of the code. This training will help our students in future programming competitions such as AdaByron or SWERC, increasing their programming skills to adapt to the innovations of the future.
Competitive programming, at the forefront of programming
Large companies such as Google or Facebook, among others, develop competitive programming contests and give this discipline a vital importance in the development of the technologies of the future. A clear example is # Codejam2018, one of the most prominent events, along with ACM ICPC, CodeChef, Codeforces, IEEEXtreme Programming Competition, TopCoder Marathon Matches, among others.
According to Estefanía Martín Barroso, Deputy Director of Research and Promotion of the school, the students “will learn a series of advanced programming techniques that are not seen during the career and that we have verified that many companies ask for when interviewing students. In addition, students notably improve their skills as programmers ”. Jesús Sánchez Oro, professor at the ETSII, adds that the course “will undoubtedly allow our students to be able to make better codes and in less time compared to those of other universities, being able to solve problems of interest to companies. The proof is that in these contests companies such as Google or Microsoft usually participate as sponsors that offer well-paid contracts to the best participants.
The course begins the last week of January and ends at the end of March, with a duration of two hours per week. Students enrolled in ETSII degrees will be able to access this training for free.
Isaac Lozano-Osorio
Artificial Intelligence Phd Student
Isaac Lozano graduated with a double degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Engineering from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, where he was awarded the prize for the Best Final Project. Subsequently, he completed a Master in Artificial Intelligence Research (UIMP). His main research interests are focused on the interface between Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research. Most of his publications deal with the development of metaheuristic procedures for graph modeled optimization problems.