SOI-Day 2017
42 young computer science talents from all of Switzerland met on the 7th of January at the ETH Zürich, where the winners of the first round and its creativity task were determined.
The top five participants, Jonathan Hauenstein from Luzern (LU); Martin Chikov from Genf (GE); Nicolas Camendisch from Oberwil-Lieli (AG); Jan Boschung from Düdingen (FR) and Robin Hänni from Herrenschwanden (BE); as well as Jan Schär from Schönenwerd (SO), co-winner of the creativity task, were honoured with prizes. Jan Boschung also won the creativity task together with Jan Schär, Nicolas Camendisch was honored for the best performance of participant younger than 16 years, Viera and Ivana Klasovita, both from Aeugst am Albis (ZH), won the women’s award, and Jan Schär won the Rainbow Award for the first time, having solved all tasks in a different programming language. In the coming year, the best programmers will be determined, four of which will travel to Tehran, Iran, to participate in the 29th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).
From left to right: Jonathan Hauenstein (Luzern, LU), Martin Chikov (Genf, GE), Nicolas Camendisch (Oberwil-Lieli, AG), Ian Boschung (Düdingen, FR), Robin Hänni (Herrenschwanden, BE)
Perseverance is required
The participants showed their creativity and their talent for logics. Johannes Kapfhammer, president of the SOI: “It is astonishing every year, how excited the participants are when participating. Not only solving the difficult tasks is required, but also the necessary knowledge must be studied. Our workshops help, but they are just the starting point.”
Tournament of the creativity task “Submarine”
Creativity Task: tactics with submarines
In computer science, creativity plays an important part, as was shown by Jan Boschung and Jan Schär, who won the creativity award together. They wrote the best programs for the creativity task: one player tries to transport cheese by boat, while the other player tries to interrupt deliveries by using submarines. Complex strategies are involved, as the submarines need to predict the route the boats take, while the boats themselves need to avoid the submarines.
Lecture on Machine Learning
In the afternoon, Martin Jaggi, ex-leader of the SOI, held a lecture on Machine Learning, his research topic. The topic is becoming more and more important, and the participants might use the learned algorithms e.g. in the creativity task next year.
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