HR4RS stamp
Raul Garcia Hemonnet
Last weekend, the final of the SWERC competitive programming contest took place in the Italian city of Milan, which brings together a total of 120 teams made up of university students from South-West Europe.
Three URJC teams have managed to participate in this final and compete throughout the weekend: Hackbulla, Teamto de Verano and Pik2. Two of them made up of third-year students.
As Isaac Lozano Osorio, coach of two of the teams and member of the GRAFO research group, points out, "the URJC teams have been in the middle of the table in the European arena, in the top 15 of Spanish universities and in second position in the that refers to the Madrilenas”.
It was a weekend full of emotions, since on Saturday, dedicated to training, "the URJC came to be first in Europe," says Isaac Lozano. In addition, the following day, already in the middle of the competition, one of the teams from the Rey Juan Carlos University remained in the Top 10 of the universities in the contest for half an hour.
"This motivated the students and encouraged them to keep going," says the coach, who adds that the objective of the competitive programming team in these appointments "is for the students to know how to work as a team, network and contact companies and other equipment".
Competitions such as SWERC represent a 'plus' in the profiles of students when it comes to entering the labor market. Some of the URJC participants in previous editions now develop their professional careers in technological giants such as Facebook or Huawei, among others.
The trip of the teams has been financed by the ETSII (Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering).
Competitive Programming
The URJC has had, for several courses, training in Competitive Programming, which is basically what contests such as SWERC are based on.
This year, the course already has several sessions and registrations exceeded the available places. “It is a way of working on what we see in the subjects, but in another way”, mentions Isaac Lozano.
The Competitive Programming group is already preparing the next competition. Today the qualifiers for the Ada Byron contest take place, whose Madrid phase will take place during the month of March at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.