Russian Talents Shine in IT Contests

[Elena Gapova]

By Maria Levitov, The Moscow Times May 12, 2006
http://www.russoft.org/docs/?doc=1154

Russian Talents Shine in IT Contests
Moscow State University student Pyotr Mitrichev, 21, took the gold this
month at a major programming competition in the United States. His prize was
the latest in a string of victories by Russian programmers.

Luck shined on Mitrichev in Las Vegas, where he beat 47 other contenders at
the Top Coder annual competition. The finalists earned their spots by
beating thousands of computer gurus in timed programming contests held
online around the globe.

Last month, 10 Russian university teams battled 70 other finalists from all
over the world and won five of the 12 medals at the global programming
championship, organized by U.S.-based Association for Computing Machinery.
The team from Russia's Saratov State University took the world championship
title at the competition in San Antonio.

The country's strong tradition in science education remains one of the main
reasons behind the shining performance of Russia's technical talents. Even
though the country's educational system has had its fair share of problems,
"it remains strong ... and the kids show a real interest [in programming],"
said Yevgeny Pankratyev, competitive programming coach at Moscow State
University.

Although the country's IT sector remains relatively small by global
standards, recent victories in international programming competitions
showcase the software industry's future potential, said Valentin Makarov,
president of the Russoft software developers association.

Russoft estimated that the country's software export industry grew from $730
million in 2004 to $970 million in 2005, which currently only accounts for
less than 1 percent of the world's IT outsourcing market.

Makarov predicted the industry would reach $1.3 billion by the end of the
year.

In his annual state-of-the-nation address Wednesday, President Vladimir
Putin said Russia must become a "large exporter of intellectual services"
and focus on innovation to become a competitive global economic player.

To win this month's programming competition, Mitrichev "successfully
submitted the only solution to the hardest problem to win the closely
contested championship round" and took the $20,000 grand prize, Top Coder
organizers said in a statement.

The two-day competition, which included timed algorithmic problem solving
using programming languages such as Java, C# and C++, ended on May 5.
Poland's Tomasz Czajka and Japan's Natori Shin took the silver and bronze,
respectively.

Russia had eight programmers in the finals, surpassed only by Poland, which
was represented by 11 finalists in Las Vegas.

"We had very good succession. Past winners [of similar competitions] train
the newcomers," said Mitrichev, who returned to Moscow on Sunday.

Mitrichev - also the winner of another programming competition in March in
Belarus - is an assistant math teacher at Moscow's School No. 57.

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