GUST Teams win at Kuwait Collegiate Programming Contest

Gulf University for Science and Technology hosted the 5th Kuwait Collegiate Programming Contest (KCPC) which is a sub-regional contest of the Arab Collegiate Programming Contest (ACPC) on its campus last week, which was attended by Dr Ziad Najem, Manager of the Math and Science Education Program at the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), and CEO of the KFAS Academy. GUST team members Karim Al Maghraby, Amr Ahmed, and Ebraheem AlMuaili, which competed under the name, “Nameless”, were the champions of the contest, and also won the Solid Programmers’ Award, and the Extreme Programmers’ Award.

Also winning medals for GUST were third place winners, Talal Al Ammar, Ali Almusawi, and Mohammad Al Essa, who competed under the name “Bounty”, and in fourth place were Zainab Al Arbash, Shareefah Al Ghanem, and Munera Tawfiqi who competed under the name “Punny=Null”. All GUST teams were coached by Fadi Deeb, a faculty member in the Computer Science department at GUST.

The competition, which was sponsored by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, and hosted by GUST, provided an opportunity for 27 participating teams to demonstrate their skills in programming and problem solving. It also engenders creativity, teamwork, and enables students to test their ability to perform under tough time constraints. In order to win, the student teams had to solve the most problems correctly in the shortest time. All of the winning teams from GUST have now qualified to participate at the Arab Collegiate Programming Contest, hosted by Arab Academy for Science Technology & Maritime Transport in Sharm El Sheikh, before advancing to International Collegiate Programming Contest, due to take place in Beijing in April of next year.

GUST President, Professor Donald Bates, said, “I am extremely proud of the positions all of our teams secured in this rigorous competition. They demonstrated skill, finesse, and creativity in their approach to each of the problems, and came up with excellent solutions to all. Having secured 1st, 3rd, and 4th place feel invigorated and encouraged that our curriculum and faculty were able to produce such competent programmers. This makes me very confident that our teams will do well at the next stage of the competition.”

The head of Computer Science department, Dr Taher Ali, said, “The department of Computer Science is adhere to organize, participate and support events that motivate selflearning skills. Competition based learning enriches the educational system. We have seen evidences of dramatic changes in students’ performance after participating in such events. Thanks for every single person who participated in making the event successful.”

Manager of the Math and Science Education Program at the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), and CEO of the KFAS Academy, Dr Ziad Najem, said, “It gives me great pleasure to see so many teams participate with such enthusiasm and creativity. The spirit of teamwork, encouragement, and volunteering is very much alive, and I am glad to see such a healthy environment being fostered by GUST.”

The competition also doubles as an opportunity for public and private companies seeking to employ talented programmers and developers, in a sector which has seen exponential growth locally. This is especially true as more and more companies move to digitize their services, and find new and innovative methods to connect with their clients and expand their businesses. GUST continuously encourages its students to participate in such events to build their skills and character, in order to become a better-rounded individual, capable of reaching their full potential upon graduation.