The Vietnam Student Informatics Olympic (OLP’23), Procon Vietnam, and the ICPC Asia Hue City programming competition are being held at the University of Sciences, Hue University, from December 5 to December 8, 2023.
OLP’23, Procon, and ICPC Asia Hue City serve as gathering points for the most outstanding computer science students from universities, colleges, and academies nationwide. This event is a celebration of IT talents and skills for students on the largest international scale in Vietnam. From the results of the ICPC Asia Hue City competition, one winning team will be selected to participate in the Global ICPC Finals in Kazakhstan in September 2024. Additionally, the top 10 outstanding teams out of 65 will qualify to participate in the ICPC Asia Pacific Finals in Hanoi in early March 2024.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Permanent Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue Province, highly appreciates the proactive organization and coordination efforts of the Vietnam Computer Science Association, the University of Sciences, Hue University, and relevant units in organizing OLP’23, Procon, and ICPC Asia Hue City with international stature, taking place in Hue.
In 2022, Vietnamese students, representing Southeast Asia, achieved a global rank of 12 and won the Silver Medal at the ICPC World Final in Dhaka, Bangladesh. OLP’23, Procon, and ICPC Asia Hue City brought together 612 computer science students and over 140 coaches from 78 universities and colleges, as well as academies across Vietnam. The event featured 20 teams comprising 60 students from 10 prestigious universities in 6 countries: South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Specifically, there were more than 436 students participating in the 5-block competition including the Olympic, Procon, and 375 students (125 teams) taking part in the ICPC Asia Hue City competition, with 20 teams from 6 Asian countries. The total number of teams across all competition categories reached nearly 200 teams competing for collective and team awards.
The Organizing Committee proceeded to award the national ICPC prizes, which were held earlier.
In 2023, OLP’23 and ICPC Asia expanded the competition to include high-level participation from specialized high schools: the top 50 outstanding students from the National Excellent Student Teams of 21 high schools competed in the Super Cup OLP’23 on December 6, and 37 high school teams competed in ICPC Asia Hue City at 3 test locations in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang on December 8, 2023. This provided an opportunity for students from the National Excellent Student Teams to train at a high level before the National Excellent Student Competition in 2023 and prepare for the establishment of the Asian-Pacific Informatics Olympiad (APIO) and the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) teams for the selection competition in early 2024.
This year, for the first time, the University of Sciences, Hue University hosted the event and ensured that the facilities and technical equipment met the requirements for the global standard of the Olympic, Procon, and ICPC competitions. This guarantees a technologically advanced and high-quality competition, creating the most impressive festive atmosphere for talented young individuals in algorithms and programming—the high-quality young IT workforce of Vietnam.
Mr. Nguyen Long, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Vietnam Computer Science Association and Head of the Organizing Committee, provided information about the competitions during the opening ceremony.
The competition will continue to affirm Vietnam's position in the Asia-Pacific region and the world in terms of young IT resources. The connection of the Vietnam Student Informatics Olympic with the PROCON competition and the linkage with the global ICPC competition have expanded the national and international scale of the competition, thereby asserting the integration capability of Vietnam's youth in the field of IT. The focus is on programming skills, algorithms, improvement, teamwork, and foreign languages, which are fundamental platforms for future IT experts. With the global standard of the ICPC competition, it gradually elevates the brand of Vietnamese universities into the top 100 universities with leading IT students worldwide.
The competition is entirely operated on online grading systems following international standards: OLP and ICPC programming content on the VNOJ system operated by the Vietnamese Olympic Club, programming combat system according to the Japanese Procon standard, and OLP PMNM content in the form of a Hackathon. All results of the competition are announced in real-time, with only a one-hour freeze before the end to secure the results until the awards ceremony and closing ceremony on the evening of December 8, 2023.
The collaboration between the Vietnam Computer Science Association and the University of Sciences - Hue University, the Information Technology and Telecommunications Association of Thua Thien Hue Province in sponsoring the Hue-ICT Challenge, is a nationally significant competition.
In recent times, the Information Technology and Telecommunications Association of Thua Thien Hue Province (a member organization of the Vietnam Computer Science Association) has successfully collaborated with the University of Sciences - Hue University to organize the Hue-ICT Challenge. This programming competition is designed for high school students and features innovative information technology projects for college and university students, conducted at the provincial level. During the opening ceremony, the Vietnam Computer Science Association, the University of Sciences - Hue University, and the Information Technology and Telecommunications Association of Thua Thien Hue Province officially signed a cooperation agreement to sponsor the Hue-ICT Challenge. This partnership aims to support and promote the implementation and development of the nationally significant competition in the coming years.
Some photos at the program: